Product Description

The latest adventure from Lovejoy: the irrepressible antique hunter, lothario and out-and-out conman. Lovejoy is in serious trouble. For it appears that a local lad known as Mortimer shares his extraordinary talent for distinguishing genuine antiques from fake. Although perhaps that's not so surprising - as it is rumoured that Mortimer is Lovejoy's son...But there is one big difference between 'father' and 'son' - Mortimer's painful honesty, which is ruining the local antiques trade. And the dealers blame Lovejoy. Lovejoy decides to use his own gift to assemble a mass of antiques - with any luck he might be able to bargain his way out. But when he persuades one of his favourite ladies, the sculptress Bernicka, to help him tragedy strikes. And now Lovejoy is running scared. Particularly when the death toll around him starts to mount...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1945979 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

About the Author
Jonathan Gash is best known as the author of the highly successful Lovejoy novels, adapted for TV starring lan McShane. He also writes a thriller series featuring Dr Clare Burtonall. He lists his hobbies as antiques and his family.

Customer Reviews

Readable, but below par for Gash
This is the usual Lovejoy formula, as the amiable, amorous antiques dealer blunders his way through a mystery where everyone but him knows what's going on. Unfortunately, this one really is formulaic, and the formula isn't working very well. The plot is incoherent and it's difficult to keep track of the large cast of characters and their place in the plot. The usual Lovejoy asides to the reader about antiques, women and life still have charm, but they're getting tired and are not enough in themselves to sustain interest. This one can still provide a few hours of entertainment for long-term fans, but I'd recommend that new readers start with one of the earlier books. They're better, and don't require previous knowledge of the series to be able to follow what's going on.

Fans of the tv show should also note that the tv series cleaned the characters up quite a lot, and the original book versions of Lovejoy and some of the secondary characters are much darker. There's a lot more sex and violence, and a much higher corpse count. I prefer the book version, but the shift in characterisation could be a shock to those used to Ian MacShane's version.