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Lovejoy doesn't mind making an occasional fake... But the wholesale theft of national treasures is not something he can go along with. So when 'moonspenders' - antiques poachers with hi-tech electronic metal detectors - start digging up the ancient buried treasures of his native East Anglia, it's time for Lovejoy to take a stand. As usual, there are some surprising complications, including a local gangster who insists that Lovejoy appear on a TV game show, a few suspicious deaths, a wedding, some local witches, and several women who can't resist Lovejoy's charms. But then, who can? Praise for Jonathan Gash: 'Irrepressible... bounteous entertainment' Sunday Times 'Lovejoy is up to his old tricks again... compelling stuff' Today 'Unabashedly amoral, witty and crammed with treasures of every sort... Pure, unadulterated Lovejoy' Publishers Weekly
Every antique dealer is a bit of a detective, following clues to find the trophies that pay the rent, but when Lovejoy takes on the job of tracking down a pair of duelling pistols so rare that he's not even sure actually exist, he needs all the instincts of a detective to pick his way through an unsolved crime. Along the way, he becomes convinced that the weapons do exist but that they have fallen into the hands of a vile murderer. Locating the ancient weapons seems like the least of his problems when Lovejoy then finds himself fighting for his life in a duel to the death!
Lovejoy decides to assemble a mass of antiques in order to try to bargain his way out of some serious trouble. He persuades one of his favourite ladies to help him, but tragedy strikes. Now, Lovejoy is running scared, particularly when the death toll around him starts to mount.
When Lovejoy witnesses a car crash that turns out to be a murder - with one of his oldest antique-dealer friends the victim - he sets out on a trail of revenge that leaves him pondering several bewildering questions. Why did his friend buy up a load of junk furniture? What did he want with an old doctor's bag? Why was his friend killed? Who was trying to kill Lovejoy and - most perplexing of all - what the hell is he doing potholing through underground tunnels dodging armed hit men?
The 20th mystery of this series finds Lovejoy Antiques, Inc., in a spot of bailiff trouble and the rascally sleuth himself embroiled in a riot of holy hanky-panky, antique dealing, and devilish murder.
When times are slow in the antiques trade, divvies have to make ends meet in unusual ways. Such is Lovejoy's fate driving for Gazza Gaunt's disreputable assignation service. But when one of his customers, the beautiful Fiona, discovers his eye for the genuine article, he finds himself the toast of a rich set whose vices and interest in danger extend way beyond a casual tryst in the back of Lovejoy's van. Advising the rich on valuables is never easy, but when he discovers that this set's previous advisors have ended up in a hospital, or worse, Lovejoy decides to flee with horse-mad Almira to France. Little does he realise that Almira is part of the plot, and that France is the centre of the biggest antiques scam in history. Praise for Jonathan Gash: 'Irrepressible... bounteous entertainment' Sunday Times 'Lovejoy is up to his old tricks again... compelling stuff' Today 'Unabashedly amoral, witty and crammed with treasures of every sort... Pure, unadulterated Lovejoy' Publishers Weekly
Looking for a missing husband is not usually Lovejoy's cup of tea, but this missing husband happens to be an antiques dealer, hot on the trail of a precious antique pearl pendant. So Lovejoy sets out, only to encounter a plethora of pearls both real and fraudulent, several amorous young ladies, a bit of burglary -- and two corpses. As usual, the police are less than tolerant of Lovejoy's motives and methods. And, as usual, Lovejoy uses his charm, wit, and a little scam of his own, to see that justice triumphs.
Lovejoy discovers how the lure of gold brings out the worst kind of treasure seeker when, broke as usual and earning a crust as an unlikely babysitter, he stumbles across the diaries of a painter that appear to point to the whereabouts of a fabled hoard of Roman gold coins. Lovejoy is tempted to dismiss the whole thing as a hoax, but vile threats and violent intimidation have a way of changing his mind. He sets out to unravel the clues in the diaries, with some particularly nasty characters dogging his every move.
Doctor Clare Burtonall must decide whether or not to turn off the life support of a viciously attacted prostitute even as her boyfriend Bonn looks after the working girls of Manchester's streets in anticipation of the release of a pedophile and a vigilante stalks the town.
Lovejoy finds himself shanghaied aboard a luxurious cruise ship en route to Russia and a prisoner of a group of schemers who hope to use his talents to steal Russia's legendary "amber room" and ransom it back in Great Britain.