The Bernini Bust

(Paperback)

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Description

Clever Italian art-history crime series featuring scholar and dealer Jonathon Argyll, from the author of the best-selling masterpiece An Instance of the Fingerpost.
The hardest part of being an art dealer is having to sell your beloved works. For Jonathan Argyll, the pain is soothed when an American billionaire agrees to pay a vast sum for a relatively minor piece.

Arriving in the Californian sunshine eager to collect his cheque, Jonathan bumps into one of his less scrupulous colleagues, and discovers he is not the American's only seller. A bust of Pope Pius V is being smuggled out of Italy, and trouble is following in its wake.

Within hours, Jonathan's billionaire is dead and both the smuggler and his bust have gone missing. Thinking things can't get any worse, Jonathan calls for the help of the Italian Art Theft Squad and instead finds himself the killer's next target

Reviews

Praise for 'The Bernini Bust': 'An elegant and amusing book, perfect for those who love a clever puzzle.' Mail on Sunday 'Delightfully pursued and narrated puzzle.' Sunday Times 'Iain Pears get better and better!frothy, fun and nicely plotted.' Spectator Praise for the Jonathan Argyll series: 'Superior entertainment.' Allan Massie, Scotsman 'There is nothing so satisfactory as the deconstruction of a puzzle in the hands of such an erudite and sure-footed author.' The Times 'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday 'Iain Pears writes delightfully witty, elegant, well-informed crime novels.' The Times 'You don't have to know much about art to enjoy Iain Pears's Italian mysteries. Like a good teacher, he shares his passion unobtrusively and flavours his lessons with wit.' Val McDermid 'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Mail on Sunday Praise for 'The Portrait': 'A wonderful, grimly entertaining novel.' Sunday Telegraph 'A revenge fantasy to relish.' Independent on Sunday 'Genuinely creepy.' The Times 'An exquisite miniature that explores the roles of artist and critic with wit and gore.' Evening Standard 'This is an atmospheric tour de force of historical writing, as it is of narrative skill.' Independent 'Taut, disturbing!full of interesting observations about the late nineteenth - and early twentieth-century art world!mesmerising.' Spectator

Author Bio

Iain Pears was born in 1955, educated at Wadham College, Oxford and won the Getty Scholarship to Yale University. He has worked as a journalist, an art historian and a television consultant. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream Of Scipio.He lives with his wife and son in Oxford.