Book Review - The Immaculate Deception (Iain Pears)

The Immaculate Deception
Iain Pears
[detective fiction]
HarperCollins 2000
282 pages

A book review by Danny Yee
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Immaculate_Deception.html

Flavia di Stefano is acting head of the Italian Art Theft Squad. When a
painting on loan for a high-profile exhibition is stolen, threatening
a national furor, the prime minister himself summons her -- only to
forbid either an illegal ransom payment or any kind of public action.
She fears she's being set up as a scapegoat, and her mentor Bottando,
looking forward to retirement, isn't eager to get involved. Meanwhile
her husband Jonathan Argyll, a dilettante art historian, is trying to
establish a provenance for a small painting of Bottando's...

There's some violence towards the end, but the mood of _The Immaculate
Deception_ is light-hearted -- it's not an outright comedy, but Pears'
satire is gentle but effective and he doesn't take himself too seriously.
The plot has more than enough twists and turns to keep us curious,
without becoming too implausible or complex, and the characters are
convincingly human, never reduced to farce or formula. The sordid
corruption of Italian politics and the feuds and contrivances of the
art world make for a dramatic backdrop.

_The Immaculate Deception_ is the seventh novel featuring Flavia di
Stefano and Jonathan Argyll -- and perhaps, given its conclusion,
the last. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the earlier volumes.

--

%T The Immaculate Deception
%A Pears, Iain
%I HarperCollins
%C London
%D 2000
%O paperback
%G ISBN 0-00-651111-2
%P 282pp
%K detective fiction, art, Italy
%Z a mystery of Italian art and politics

16 July 2003

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Copyright (c) 2003 Danny Yee http://danny.oz.au/
Danny Yee's Book Reviews http://dannyreviews.com/
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