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Death of an Old Master
David Dickinson Manufacturer: Constable and Robinson ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback  General
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ASIN: 184119932X |
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Ah, those gullible new American millionaires of the late 19th century. After first enriching themselves through railroad development, the shipping trade, or other robber-baron enterprises, many sought to manifest their sophistication by purchasing great European works of art. "I suspect we may be at the very beginning of the biggest buying spree in history," remarks one cultural connoisseur in David Dickinson's Death of an Old Master. "For the dealers, the opportunities are huge." And there were still greater profits to be made by purveyors of counterfeit masterpieces, as is made clear in this smartly plotted third mystery (after Goodnight, Sweet Prince and Death and the Jubilee) featuring Lord Francis Powerscourt, a former army intelligence officer who's now "one of the foremost investigators in Britain."Powerscourt's interest in the 1899 slaying of leading art critic Christopher Montague--garroted in his London flat with a piano wire--is simple enough: the dead man was one of his wife Lucy's myriad relatives. But this is no simple homicide. For one thing, all of Montague's papers have disappeared. These include an article he was writing about forged or faked Renaissance paintings--some of which are hanging at the prestigious de Courcy and Piper Gallery. It's a neat little business that partners William Alaric Piper and Edmund de Courcy have been running: With the help of a talented--and captive--young artist named Orlando Blane, they duplicate existing Old Masters, or create new ones in identical style, for sale to foreigners. So was Montague killed to prevent his revealing this epidemic fraudulence? Or was the critic's demise the tragic outcome of his affair with a married woman, whose husband is now missing? Following the garroting of Montague's closest friend, and with a likely innocent man awaiting trial for these murders, Dickinson's aristocratic sleuth begins a chase after answers that will lead him from the Mediterranean island of Corsica to London's hallowed National Gallery and a disheveled dynastic mansion on the Norfolk seacoast.
Dickinson, a former BBC-TV editor, stuffs Death of an Old Master with knowledge about the Victorian art world, yet avoids didactic stuffiness. His focus here is instead on wit, rompish adventure, and a cast memorable for its quirky diversity. Although readers may be hard-pressed to identify the killer in advance, the courtroom resolution to Dickinson's mystery boasts something that's lacking from most of the artistic efforts in this tale: genuineness. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
In Death of an Old Master, it is Titian and a host of other Renaissance painters that command the attention of author David Dickinson and his discreet society investigator Lord Powerscourt. The celebrated 1899 exhibition of Venetian paintings has just opened in London when a leading art critic, Christopher Montague, is found murdered-garroted, to be precise-in his study. Powerscourt turns up a motive soon enough. For Montague would surely have closed the exhibition and rocked the London art world to its foundations, if he had published his article alleging that the work of the Old Masters on display (and on sale for fortunes in American dollars) were in fact brilliantly, and recently, executed forgeries. In search of his suspect, Powerscourt traverses a treacherous world of art dealers and picture restorers in London and on the continent before arriving in sun-baked, sinister Corsica. There perils mount, but Powerscourt has barely begun to scrape the paint off the murderous secrets hidden in the canvases of the Old Masters.Customer Reviews:
Witty, Intriguing, Highly Readable.......2005-04-04
Very nice historical mystery.......2004-07-07
Investigator Lord Francis Powerscourt interveins when his wife reminds him that the victim is something of a cousin (Powerscourt believes that half of English society is a cousin of some sort to his wife). The case looks clearcut--the dead man had been having an affair with a married woman whose husband had recently learned of the affair and was not happy about it. But Powerscourt doesn't trust any case that looks too obvious and he finds other motives--motives involving money and great art.
Author David Dickinson writes convincingly of English 'society' near the end of the 19th century. British nobles are finding their ancestral homes to be expensive monstrosities that they still must maintain, manners remain critical, and a woman can be ruined by scandal--but both men and women still seek out adventure in their lives. Powerscourt is a well developed and sympathetic character--often lost in the case but never too busy to make time for his wife (and occasional co-investigator) and children. Dickinson doesn't look beneath the upper crust of English society, but even that upper crust is pretty rotten.
Dickinson throws out a number of red herings, sends Powerscourt through England and even to Corsica, and gives the reader enough interest in art and art forgery to make for a fascinating read.
Great storytelling.......2004-06-17
This is a good story; it moves right along with plenty of action. The characters are so well drawn that you don't even notice the writer doing it. The background is authentic and the various motivations very true to the time, the setting and the plot. The dialogue was crisp and the transitions barely noticeable.
This is John Buchan meeting Anne Perry, with the addition of a sense of humor. I really enjoyed it.
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Goodnight Sweet Prince, Death & The Jubilee, Death of an Old Master. Daeth of a Chancellor *All 4 signed*
David Dickinson Manufacturer: Constable ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000H7MLZS |
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Goodnight Sweet Prince, Death & the Jubilee, Death of an Old Master. Daeth of a Chancellor *All 4 Signed*
David Dickinson Manufacturer: Constable ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000S6PGXM |
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