Jonathan Argyll Mystery S.

3 total works

Death and Restoration

by Iain Pears

Published 23 May 1996

'This book dances with sunlight and colour, faded patinas and shifting standards, with humour and knowledge making easy companions' Mail on Sunday The monastery of San Giovanni has few treasures -- only a painting doubtfully attributed to Caravaggio. So Flavia di Stefano of Rome's Art Squad is surprised to receive a tip-off that a raid is being planned. The raid happens, but the thieves are disturbed and snatch the wrong painting, a curious icon of the Madonna, remarkable only for the affection in which it is held by the local population. Or is this what the thieves wanted all along? Does the legend of the icon's miraculous powers hold any clue? And who murdered the French dealer found in the Tiber soon afterwards? Flavia, with the help of English art dealer Jonathan Argyll, immerses herself in the intricacies and intrigues of monastic and police politics in an attempt to solve the double mystery, but the solution that awaits her is murkier and more complex than anyone could have known.

Giotto's Hand

by Iain Pears

Published 24 November 1994

General Bottando of Rome’s Art Theft Squad believes that a lone criminal mastermind—dubbed “Giotto”—has been stealing priceless Renaissance art for over thirty years. But his theory—prompted by a letter from an embittered, dying old woman—is scorned by archrival Corrado Argan, a bureaucrat more interested in politics than policing.

Bottando’s right hand, the beautiful Flavia di Stefano, quickly locates a possible culprit—but he’s in England. Since the conniving Argan considers even a trip across town an unnecessary expense for Bottando’s squad, Flavia must rely on her fiancé, Jonathan Argyll. In England on business, he finds the suspect suspiciously dead. That’s a pity—especially for Jonathan. Were he not on the scene—raving about art thefts and coincidences—the police may have ruled that the deceased had a few too many and tripped on a loose stair. Now, Jonathan’s passport has been lifted until Her Majesty’s magistrate is satisfied that he has told all he knows… 

 

The Immaculate Deception

by Iain Pears

Published 23 October 2000

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.