The Etruscan chimera

Publishers Weekly

Canadian Hamilton (author of the Arthur Ellis nominated The African Quest, etc.) serves up her usual appealing mix of objets d'art and murder in her sixth well-researched mystery to feature antiquities dealer Lara McClintoch. In Rome, reclusive billionaire Crawford Lake hires Lara to get him the Bellerophon, a rare companion piece to the Chimera of Arezzo, one of the great Etruscan art treasures. Lara sets out to secure the Bellerophon from the collector who owns it, Robert Godard. There's just one hitchshe's sure it's a fake. Returning to deal with the collector, she finds an unwelcome sight: Godard lay sprawled, his body contorted in an awkward position, with his useless legs partly under him, his eyes still open, mouth contorted in a hideous grimace of fear or perhaps rage, as blood seeped from a wound at the back of his head. The picaresque plot leads from France to Rome to Ireland via a twisting set of intricate machinations and a sense of wanderlust that never flags. The peripatetic Ms. McClintoch makes an engaging detective, whether she's canvassing a flea market at Vanves for a 1924 edition of Sir Richard Burton's The Kasidah or window shopping on a little street off the Boulevard St. Germain. The author provides some tense moments, some impressionistic descriptions of the European terrain and some truly unforgivable puns (With any luck, I'd forced the issue. Because I was sick and tired of waiting for Godard ). Erudite mystery fans will enjoy the sophisticated wit. (May 7) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

Lara McClintock is off on another of her adventures while in the business of purchasing works of art for an antique store she and her former husband own. This time she is summoned by a reclusive billionaire who wants her to purchase a six-foot statue called the Bellerophon so that he may put it back in the museum where its companion piece was. Suddenly she is involved with numerous people who speak to her and end up dead. She also finds herself with yet another missing piece—an Etruscan chimera—that comes into her possession. There is conspiracy everywhere and the ending is a surprise. Readers will learn a lot about Etruscan history and art. Mystery buffs will enjoy another winner from Hamilton. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Berkley, 293p. map.,
— Barbara Jo McKee

Kirkus Reviews

Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch (The African Quest, 2001, etc.) finds herself in a B-movie scenario when her escort to an appointment in Rome with reclusive billionaire Crawford Lake blindfolds her. Melodrama continues to attend her like Hitchcock on a bad day once Lake hires her to buy an ancient Etruscan statue from French collector Robert Goddard. She jumps at the chance, not wondering unduly why she, a relative unknown, has been chosen. In France, she discovers that Goddard is reluctant to part with the statue, even though she thinks it's a fake. But he takes a shine to Lara and shows her his custom-built subterranean tomb, done in the authentic Etruscan style. When Lara returns for more negotiations, she finds Goddard's dead body in the tomb. Did he fall while maneuvering out of his wheelchair, did he succumb to despair, or was he pushed? Then Lara discovers a priceless authentic Etruscan hydria-a water jug stolen from a museum-in the trunk of her car. She smuggles it back to Italy to see whether Lake can return it to the proper authorities. Once in Tuscany, ancient seat of the Etruscan state, the hydria gets passed from villain to victim, leaving corpses in its wake. In a conspiracy that makes the mythological Hydra look like a reasonable creature, Lara suffers from the conventional dimness of the dupe. And who can blame her? No one but a mystery novelist could possibly have imagined this farrago of ridiculously complicated schemes.