by David Dickinson

'Excellent. . . . Dickinson's knowledge of the arts, history and literature is nothing if not exhaustive, and adds enormously.'-Publishers Weekly

'Fine prose, high society and a complex plot recommend this series.'-Library Journal

Original or fake, masterpiece or forgery: misadventure or murder?

England 1899, and the Salisbury Galleries in London announce the biggest exhibition of 'Old Master' paintings ever seen in Europe. Excitement is intense, but before the exhibition opens, one of Britain's leading art experts, Christopher Montague, is found dead in his study. When Lord Francis Powerscourt is called in to investigate, he finds that every book, notepad, and scrap of paper has been removed from the scene of the crime. Montague had been working on something that would have rocked the art world. Did the article that claimed a number of the 'Old Masters' had been painted recently by a single hand have anything to do with his death?

Powerscourt embarks on an odyssey through a treacherous world of art dealers and picture restorers in pursuit of a master forger. He travels to Sicily where the trail grows cold, but, after the thrills and dangers of that lawless island, it is in a remote corner of the English countryside where the truth is finally revealed.