The Ten Word Game

Lovejoy #23

by Jonathan Gash

A mystery in the long-running series featuring the well-known antiques "divvy" and general bad boy, Lovejoy.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 12, 2003

About the author

John Grant is an English crime writer, who writes under the pen name Jonathan Gash. He is the author of the Lovejoy series of novels. He wrote the novel The Incomer under the pen name Graham Gaunt.

Grant is a doctor by training and worked as a general practitioner and pathologist. He served in the British Army and attained the rank of Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was head of bacteriology at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the University of London between 1971 and 1988.

Grant won the John Creasey Award in 1977 for his first Lovejoy novel, The Judas Pair. He is also the author of a series of medical thrillers featuring the character Dr. Clare Burtonall.

Grant lives outside Colchester in Essex, the setting for many of his novels. He has also been published in Postscripts.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the penultimate Lovejoy, and the only one I've ever read. There were a lot of characters including mentions of characters from Lovejoy's past and the myriad of characters on the cruise chip Lovejoy is high jacked onto. Lovejoy keeps trying to escape and keeps being brought back to the ship. Ultimately I got to the end of the book and wasn't sure what had actually happened or who was involved (of the many characters) in what. If, though, you are interested in antiques, this series is for you. Lovejoy loves women, any and all women, but his way of talking about women is dated and his language for having sex with them is more than coy. I'd read another, but maybe the first in the series in order to get a better grounding in the character. I also will never look at those antique shows on television in the same way again. There was one character named Les Renown, which always tripped me up because of Les Brown and His Band of Renown.

[RC Prentice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a Lovejoy client really expect him to pull off a heist in the Hermitage Museum? Or is the Hermitage destination simply a ruse, with the real objective being the secret location of the famed Amber Room, long disappeared from the Hermitage during WWII? Always embedded in a Lovejoy mystery are more mysteries, namely, the reliability of author Gash’s pronouncements—through Lovejoy--on fakes, values, and provenances of artwork and antiques. How much does Lovejoy Gash) want us to swallow as part of his general MO of hoodwinking? Aboard a luxury cruise ship that will dock, on the way, in Amsterdam, Lovejoy confronts beautiful women and food banquets; gets entwined in an auction that is eminently sabotageable; evaluates the agendas of fellow antiquers who may be as phony as the fakes they are peddling and whose schemes for self-enrichment are even more full of holes than anything Lovejoy might pull off; and suddenly finds himself the object of what he presumes is an assassination attempt. Arrays of personalities and objets d’art keep the pace fast, the entertainment value high, and the tracking of characters a test of mental pigeon-holing capabilities.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Motheriffic Russia

After a long absence, I returned to Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy series with this book. It was...okay. Lovejoy is still a sexist pig, though a bit less so since the last time I looked in.

What I find most annoying, and had thankfully forgotten from the earlier books I had read, is the ineffably stupid expression “making smiles” Gash uses as a dumb euphemism for sexual activity. Still screamingly teeth-grating, and so frequently employed, like forty billion times, that if I’d been playing a drinking game I’d have been passed out flat on the floor.

Oh, and he claims King Henry VIII to have been tall and slim. Which he was in his young manhood, but later became a right royal porker and needed to be winched onto his warhorse. I have seen the progressively girthier suits of his armor in the
Tower of London, and the final one could have fit a stegosaurus. Gash is usually correct in detail, so I just thought I’d say where he wasn’t. Carry on.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it easy to like a guy who creates forgeries as well as some of the trouble he gets into? No, it's not easy, but Lovejoy has a way of growing on me, and I enjoy learning about antiques along the way.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seem like it's been a long time coming but Jonathan Gash manages to to produce a "Lovejoy" mystery that recaptures the style of his earlier mystery. Informative, educational and a good mystery as Lovejoy heads for the new Russia and a cruise ship.

[Daniel Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly among the best of the latter Lovejoy books, though perhaps not as good as the very best of the middle of the series.

[Mira · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a Lovejoy novel but on a cruise skip..🛳

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading the Lovejoy books since the first one in the series and that is probably why I'm disappointed with this one. The first ones were so great that this one doesn't compare. Also, because Lovejoy got shanghaied, Tinker wasn't in this book and I do love Tink.

As I was reading this book I kept thinking about the reviews I've seen for Lee Child's last book A Wanted Man with readers complaining that Reacher spent 3/4 of the book riding in a car. Well, that's how I felt about this book. The first 3/4 of the book was kind of filler. We were tossed some crumbs of antique trivia to keep us around but basically it was nothing. The story that comes out in the last 1/4 of the book has enough depth and breadth to have given us a whole book's worth but, instead, we are given a short story.

Lovejoy says something interesting on p. 238: "Is there anything more useless than a prologue, a preface, a foreword, or an introduction? If they've anything to say, I always think, get on with it and stop annoying us." Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess the reason I like the Lovejoy series is the voice. It's first person and the man never shuts up - in a good way. Even when nothing's happening he's going on about antiques and frauds and scams and history and any other random facts that occur. I also like that he's a crook but he only uses it for good - he only cons the cons who deserve it. He himself never seems to gain by it, though and he's always on the run from creditors and tax collectors. He's got an enormous circle of craftsman/forger friends, each with his own specialty (Lovejoy himself forges paintings when the need arises). That this down-and-out schlub should be a babe magnet gets a little tiresome but he's in awe of women. In general, the characters are just sketched in, which I would normally object to, except that the twisty plots move so fast and you learn so many interesting things along the way

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2043954.html[return][return]Another Lovejoy book, from the later end of the series, and operating very much to the formula of richly realised foreign setting (in this case a cruise ship going round the Baltic, with special attention to St Petersburg), with Lovejoy mixed p in a heist most of whose details are incomprehensible (and remain so) and his supernatural sense of detecting genuine antiques a key plot point. The harder edges of the character from the earlier books are considerably toned down, no doubt under the influence of the TV series, and he doesn't actually manage to have sex with anyone until more than half way through (though then vigorously makes up for the delay).

[Alisonpaddock]

I just started this one - bought a bunch of older books at the library sale. It has been a while since I "visited" with old friend Lovejoy. He has always been one of my favorite rascals. Can't wait to see how he is going to pull a fast one this time!

[Irene B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovejoy kidnapped and sent on an antiquing cruise to Russia. This one is very entertaining. Even though I am not into antiques myself, I do enjoy how the author sprinkles interesting stories about antiques and scams throughout his novels.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the other Lovejoy books that I've read, the story moves relatively slowly but with a lot of words and a lot of trivia. This was entertaining but there could have been more urgency.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovejoy fleeing on a cruise to Russia. Great antiques, ordinary story. The Amber Room again, only not as much fun as Twining's book.

[Jeff Stanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of the Lovejoy series. Still worth the read if your a fan of the series, but be prepared to use a flowchart for all the characters involved.

[Jen Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it. Makes me want to take a cruise. The ended summed up all a little too fast though.