A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair: The Twenty-First Lovejoy Novel Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair: The Twenty-First Lovejoy Novel Book

What bliss! Lovejoy is back, in his 21st adventure--and while Jonathan Gash (The Possessions of a Lady, The Rich and the Profane, etc.) might be forgiven if things were getting a bit stale by this point, happily, A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair is anything but dull. This latest adventure sends Lovejoy, an antiques dealer and sometime forger with a gift for sensing genuine articles from fake, trawling the London markets from Camden Passage to Portobello, in order to find out who's passed dud gemstones to Dosh Callaghan. But after stopping to say hello to his old friends Arthur and Colette Goldhorn, he finds that their antiques shop has been commandeered by the unspeakable Dieter Gluck, a suave thug with muscular friends. Arthur is dead, Colette is on the street, and their son Mortimer has mysteriously disappeared. When Lovejoy sets out to save the day, he finds out that conning a con can be a dangerous proposition, and he'll need every ounce of trickiness to keep more corpses from appearing: "These markets look the soul of innocence, street barrows lined up under merry bunting. In fact they can be scary, while seeming the friendliest places on earth. You've been warned. Much good warnings ever do, though. When greed and antiques meet everybody ignores warnings." As usual, Gash peppers his pages with a glorious assortment of supporting characters (i.e., accomplices): meet Lydia, Lovejoy's prim and proper apprentice; Tinker, a phlegmatic burglar with a powerful thirst; and Trout, a midget who specializes in Tarzan sing-o-grams. But Lovejoy's voice is the real delight; he is anxious to educate his readers in all manner of antiques arcana--the importance of using real vellum in faking Renaissance miniatures; the history of the great Dogon mask fraud; how to forge scholarly impressions of Roman coins with a bit of isinglass and ochre. His lectures and wry meditations on the foibles of humanity are delivered with the mix of wide-eyed amazement and effortless humor that Gash's readers have come to appreciate and expect. A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair will have Lovejoy fans new and old crying, "Bring on number 22, and hurry, please!" --Kelly FlynnRead More

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  • Product Description

    "After almost twenty years of doing business on the dodgy side of the trade, Lovejoy is still a love and the joy he brings to his work is undiminished," said a recent review in The New York Times. In his twenty-first caper, mystery fans' favorite antiques dealer faces his biggest challenge ever: not just solving a murder, but also deciphering the knotty mysteries of fatherhood.

    In order to find out who's been passing off phony gemstones, Lovejoy needs to trawl the London markets. In between Camden Passage and Portobello, he pays a visit to his old friends Colette and Arthur Goldhorn, but he is in for a dreadful surprise--the Goldhorn's King's Road shop has been taken over by one Dieter Gluck, a handsome and elegant thug with bad breath. Thanks to him, Colette is on the street, her husband mysteriously dead and her fifteen-year-old son Mortimer's life at risk.... He's a handsome lad, too, with a familiar face and a genius for sensing genuine articles from fake.

    Lovejoy sets out to save the day, but getting on the wrong side of Herr Gluck turns out to be a very dangerous game indeed. Chock full of irresistible antiques lore and deliciously tricky tactics, A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair brings a lively new dimension to a tried-and-true series.

  • 0670885983
  • 9780670885985
  • Jonathan Gash
  • 1 March 2000
  • Viking Pr
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 344
  • First American Edition
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