An extremely complicated plot, a treatise on iconography in western art and French detectives who make Clouseau look competent - what more could you want? Well you do actually get a lot more. I found the book fascinating, enlightening, intriguing - the settings are wonderful, the art expensive and the characters larger than life.
'Jeffrey, I'm telling you it's a fake. Don't you tell me that I'm being severely French! I am severely French, but that doesn't make the issue go away. You're about to auction off a fake Malevich. I have the catalogue right here, yes. How am I so sure? I'll tell you how. Because the painting that you're planning to auction off is here. It's owned by the Malevich Society. I'm telling you, it's in the vault in the basement right now.'
