Flavia di Sefano is dispatched to Venice after a member of the Titian Committee, charged with authenticating work by that famous Renaissance painter, is found stabbed to death in a public garden. Although she is not exactly a police officer, as a member of Rome’s Art Theft Squad she is told to offer assistance to the local police with respect to any art-related aspects of the case, an offer the local officer in charge of the matter truly despises. Meanwhile, art historian and sometime dealer Jonathan Argyll is in Venice in the process of finalizing the buying of some minor artwork from an elderly aristocrat, although he is constantly being stymied by an officious companion to the old lady. When a second art committee member dies and the art collection Jonathan is after disappears, the two must team up again to try to solve the mystery amidst the byzantine machinations thrown up by every aspect of Venice herself…. This is the second book in Iain Pears’ 1990s series and like its predecessor The Raphael Affair it is replete with details of the world of fine art and collectibles, along with sharp observations about Italian, and in this particular case Venice especially, society. Because Mr. Pears himself is an art historian, the methods of detection and other problems of art are completely believable, and his journalist past renders his observations of society both accurate and, occasionally, hilarious; recommended! ( )

A woman is found face down in a flower bed by the gardener of the Giardinetti Reali in Venice. Bad enough the gardener was to supply flowers for the city banquet that night, from the flower bed. Worse that it was a foreigner. But when it turns out to be a member of the Titian Committee, an organization funded by the Italian Arts Ministry and is to study and catalogue all works produced by Tiziano Vecelli (1486 – 1576); then the Italian National Art Theft Squad, in Rome, is called in.

Flavia de Stefano is assigned the case. Off to Venice she is sent — with an expense account. It should be a fairly simple case…but it’s not.

Excessive quarrelling among the committee members makes for many suspects. The clues seem to be a rats’ nest with no obvious links. And each time Flavia thinks she’s close, another member is murdered! Oh, there’s also the matter of a missing portrait.

To assist, Flavia calls in Jonathan Argyll, a noted art historian she has worked with in the past. Hmmm….interesting guy…

The characters are fun, the pace good and I enjoyed the humour running thorough the book. ( )

I liked book 1 in the series, but mostly for the setting: art in Italy. Initially, I thought this had promise (Venice!), but the mystery was fairly uninteresting, and the setting couldn't carry the book. ( )

This is another highly entertaining novel featuring Flavia di Stefano, from the Italian Art Crime Commission and Jonathan Argyll, the generally hapless but well-intentioned scholar, now working for prominent London dealer, Sir Edward Byrnes.

Over recent years, the Italian art authorities had become increasingly concerned at the proliferation on the market of paintings allegedly by Titian but lacking robust provenance. They had, therefore, set up a committee to review all known works in Italy attributed to Titian, to determine whether or not the attribution was legitimate. The Committee is made up of academics and gallery curators, and it meets every few months in a variety of notable settings. All seems to be goiung well, until one oif its member, an ambitious American academic, is found murdered in an exclusive garden in Venice, near where the Committee had been meeting.

Because of the victim’s background, the case is referred to General Bottando, head of Flavia’s unit, who delegates her to liaise with the local police authorities in Venice. While there she happens upon Argyll, who has been attempting to negotiate the purchase of several works from a wealthy Venetian widow. As luck would have it, the widow’s name had appeared in the deceased woman’s notes.

While his later works such as An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio occasionally proved challenging (yet also highly rewarding) to the reader, his earlier novels are far lighter in tone. Flavia and Argyll are very engaging, and Pears writes with a humour that was absent from his later works. The plots are soundly constructed, too, and the clues to the identity of the villains are there (even if I didn’t pick them up myself). ( )

Rating: Enjoyable and fun

I really enjoy Iain Pears, how he writes, what he writes. His titular hero Jonathan Argyll is a slightly distractible, mild art historian who tends to lose the thread periodically, not to mention manage to fall into a lagoon. The heroine of the series, Flavia, is a lovely Italian woman who is far more focused and determined to solve art related crimes, and who rather intimidates Jonathan who clearly doesn't see himself in her class. So they are friends, and part-time colleagues. And her boss is a hoot.

The mysteries themselves generally ramble, much like Jonathan, but the hints are there if you can pick them out from the distractions a bit quicker than can Jonathan. ( )