The Raphael Affair - (Art History Mystery) by Iain Pears (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of the bestselling "An Instance of the Fingerpost" comes a special trade edition of the first novel in an ingenious new Art History mystery series. When a long-lost Raphael resurfaces, it triggers a chain of events from vandalism to murder. As English art scholar Jonathan Argyll investigates, he ends up on the run for the truth and for his very life.

Book Synopsis

"Deliciously literate" (Kirkus Reviews) and filled with "articulate characters and erudite art commentary" (The New York Times Book Review), this acclaimed series of novels by Iain Pears combines art and history, literature and mystery fiction, with the same passion for detail he displayed in his New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost. In The Raphael Affair, the first book in the series, we are introduced to Jonathan Argyll, an enthusiastic young art scholar from England who has followed his suspicions about a long-lost Raphael painting to a small church in Rome. Not only is the painting in question gone from the site, it has been swiftly purchased, restored, auctioned, and installed in Rome's National Museum. But when the recovered Raphael is just as swiftly destroyed in a fire, Argyll begins to suspect its authenticity...and the innocence of every person in its path.

Review Quotes

"Masterful and calls for an encore."-Houston Post

"Impressive."-The (London) Times

"[A] clever thriller...Pears balances politics, love and danger nicely in a plot that has a cunning and satisfactory outcome."-Sunday Times

"Presents a world the author knows well in the satisfying way Margaret Truman and Dick Francis set their mysteries in milieus they know."-Associated Press

About the Author

Iain Pears was born in 1955. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he has worked as a journalist, an art historian, and a television consultant in England, France, Italy, and the United States. He is the author of seven highly praised detective novels, a book of art history, and countless articles on artistic, financial, and historical subjects, as well as the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost He lives in Oxford, England.