The Immaculate Deception

by Iain Pears (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $18.11

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.25

  New art-history mystery from the acclaimed author of the best-selling literary masterpiece An Instance of the Fingerpost. 'Superior entertainment' Allan Massie, Scotsman When an important, politically sensitive painting is kidnapped in Rome, Flavia di Stefano, acting head of the Italian Art Theft Squad, is told to get it back at all costs -- without causing any embarrassment to the country and without paying the ransom. Put in an impossible position, she turns for help to her old mentor General Taddeo Bottando, who casts a wholly unexpected light on the crime. In the meantime, her husband, English art historian Jonathan Argyll, embarks on an investigation of his own. As a gift to Bottando, he decides to establish the provenance of a small Renaissance painting, an Immaculate Conception, currently hanging on the wall of the general's apartment. Absorbing and ingeniously plotted, The Immaculate Deception is both a fascinating art-history puzzle and a gripping murder mystery as the search for the truth uncovers shocking secrets from the past and leads Argyll and Flavia into the path of some very dangerous enemies indeed.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $5.52

  Iain Pears is the author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller, An Instance of the Fingerpost: 'A fictional tour de force which combines erudition with mystery' P. D. James, Sunday Times When an important, politically sensitive painting is kidnapped in Rome, life takes a downward turn for Flavia di Stefano, acting head of the Italian Art Theft Squad. Things start badly when Flavia is told to get the painting back at all costs without causing any embarrassment to the country and without paying a ransom. Put in an impossible position, she turns for help to her old mentor General Taddeo Bottando, who is able to cast a wholly unexpected light on the crime. Flavia herself wonders if the subject of the painting, a classical landscape by Claude Lorraine, might be significant. In the meantime, her husband, the English art historian Jonathan Argyll, embarks on an investigation of his own. As a gift to Bottando, he decides to establish the provenance of a small Renaissance painting, an Immaculate Conception, currently hanging on the wall of the general's apartment. For both Argyll and Flavia, the search for the truth reveals shocking secrets from the past and leads them straight into the path of some very dangerous enemies indeed. The Immaculate Deception is an absorbing, witty and ingeniously plotted novel, combining a gripping murder mystery with a fascinating art-history puzzle.