Paid and Loving Eyes

Lovejoy #16

by Jonathan Gash

Jonathan Gash's antiques-dealing, sleuthing rougue Lovejoy is back for a dazzling adventure that takes him from East Anglia to Paris, Zurich, and the heart of the underground antiques trade. While scraping by as a driver for Gaunt's Tryste Service - rented vans for romantic rendezvous - and having a sweetly passionate affair with a rich married woman he knows only as Almira, Lovejoy once again finds his divvying skills in demand. Local underworld figure Big John Sheehan orders him to judge an illicit competition involving an antique vase, and Lovejoy's ability to divine a genuine antique reveals that Big John has been duped. Soon afterward, when one member of the local antiques circle is killed and another gravely injured in a suspicious accident, Lovejoy realizes he has stumbled into an international ring of smuggling, forgery, and exploitation of the most sinister kind. Through circumstances he doesn't quite understand, Lovejoy is hired by Monsieur Troude, a powerful French entrepreneur, and soon finds himself juggling his love of antiques with his desire to stay alive. But before he can gain an understanding of the deadly scam, he must survive encounters with treasure troves of genuine and fake antiques, the Stolen and Purloined Antiques Rescue (KGB of the antiques trade), and a variety of beautiful, dangerous women.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, British Literature

261 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Rob Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to get into this book featuring an extremely randy Lovejoy (he beds more women than James Bond!). The final third was more engaging as the story actually went somewhere. Not too keen on Lovejoy hitting two of the female characters - maybe just a product of its time?

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather unbelievable romp through Paris as Lovejoy collects and obsesses over antiques while double crosses go on around him.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1976533.html[return][return][return]The plot, for what it's worth, involves Lovejoy getting embroiled in annd then helping to bust a ring of international criminals by travelling to Paris and Switzerland from his native East Anglia; his supernatural ability to tell real antiques from fakes is a key element of the conspiracy (and makes me wonder if I should classify the Lovejoy books as fantasy rather than non-genre; on a related note I lost count of the number of women who threw themselves at him, another fantasy element). [return][return]The question of real v fake in the antique world is central to Lovejoy's motivation; it is also the author's excuse for lots of trivia about antiques, most of which I have already forgotten, though the touching story of James Sandy of Laurencekirk, the disabled and bedridden craftsman who created wonderful things, will stay with me.[return][return]Anyway, not exactly profound reading, and quite a different tone from the TV series, but entertaining and I think I'll read a few more.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time reading this book until I finally got new glasses. The font is small and I found It was interesting but since I was reading when I could I sometimes felt lost and not sure what was happening. It might be that the Lovejoy mysteries need to be read from the beginning so you know more about the main character.

[elderfoil...the whatever champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Characters and twisted capers seem to fly in from left field, but the first person commentary of Gash's protagonist on antiques, women, and society at large make the majority of the books in this series worthwhile reading.

[Michael Pryor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Punchy, flighty, wayward.