Iain Pears crafts narratives that delve into the intricate interplay of history, art, and human nature. His novels often explore how events are perceived and recounted from multiple viewpoints, uncovering truth through layers of interpretation. Pears excels at constructing compelling stories that challenge the reader's ability to discern fact from fiction. His style is marked by meticulous detail and intellectual depth, offering a rich and engaging reading experience.
A novel set in Provence at three different critical moments of Western Civilisation - the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Black Death in the fourteenth, and the Second World War in the twentieth. It follows the fortunes of three men, and each man's story is linked by the classical text that gives the book its title. schovat popis
An intellectual thriller set in Oxford in the 1660s, this novel is centred on a suspicious death, that of Robert Grove, fellow of New College. We hear from four witnesses: a Venetian Catholic; the son of a supposed traitor; the chief cryptographer to Cromwell; and Anthony Wood, the antiquary
The book was first released in hardcover in Great Britain by Faber Faber and Faber Ltd. in 2015. It showcases a unique narrative style and explores themes that resonate with contemporary readers, offering a fresh perspective on its subject matter. The publication marks a significant addition to the literary landscape of that year.
Set against a rich historical backdrop, this novel weaves a vast and intricate mystery that showcases the author's ambition and complexity. Following the success of "An Instance of the Fingerpost," the narrative promises to engage readers with its dazzling storytelling and multifaceted plot, inviting exploration into a world filled with intrigue and depth.
The attempted sale of an obscure 18th-century painting goes murderously awry in this newest mystery starring impoverished art-dealer sleuth Jonathan Argyll, from the bestselling author of The Raphael Affair and The Titian Committee.
When art dealer Jonathan Argyll arrives in Los Angeles to drop off a painting, he discovers that there are a few devils loose in the City of Angels
Flavia di Stefano of Rome's Art Squad receives a tip-off that a raid is being planned on the monastery of San Giovanni. The raid takes place, but the thieves snatch the wrong painting, an unremarkable icon of the Madonna. Soon afterwards a French dealer is found murdered in the Tiber.
When an important, politically sensitive painting is kidnapped in Rome, Flavia di Stefano, acting head of the Italian Art Theft Squad, is told to get it back at all costs – without causing any embarrassment to the country and without paying the ransom. Put in an impossible position, she turns for help to her old mentor General Taddeo Bottando, who casts a wholly unexpected light on the crime. In the meantime, her husband, English art historian Jonathan Argyll, embarks on an investigation of his own. As a gift to Bottando, he decides to establish the provenance of a small Renaissance painting, an Immaculate Conception, currently hanging on the wall of the general's apartment. Absorbing and ingeniously plotted, The Immaculate Deception is both a fascinating art-history puzzle and a gripping murder mystery as the search for the truth uncovers shocking secrets from the past and leads Argyll and Flavia into the path of some very dangerous enemies indeed.
Flavia di Stefano of Rome's Art Theft Squad and art historian Jonathan Argyll have charmed mystery readers around the world. Their latest case is baffling to the extreme, when clues from a Titian researcher's death by mugging point to murder -- and a criminal conspiracy...
Someone's planning to raid an ancient monastery in Rome. But why? And when? Enter art expert Jonathan Argyll...
English art scholar Jonathan Argyll was amazed to find himself arrested for vagrancy-while searching for a long-lost Raphael in a tiny Roman church. Although General Bottando of the Italian National Art Theft Squad has little confidence in Jonathan's theories, Bottando's lovely assistant, Flavia di Stefano, is intrigued by the idea of a lost classic, and by Jonathan himself. But in the midst of the painting's discovery and the resultant worldwide publicity, a new chain of events is set into action. First vandalism, then murder, surround the painting. And as new facts about its true nature emerge, Bottando sends Flavia and Jonathan to investigate--little knowing that the pair will be on the run for the truth... and for their very lives.
A dark and disturbing novel of suspense, set at the turn of the 20th century, by the bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost.
Oxford 1663: un luogo e un momento storico di grandi fermenti politici, scientifici e religiosi. Un docente del New College viene trovato morto in circostanze misteriose. Una ragazza è accusata di stregoneria e di omicidio, e condannata all'impiccagione. Quattro testimoni raccontano la loro "verità": un cattolico veneziano, Marco da Cola; uno studente in medicina, Jack Prestcott; un insigne matematico e teologo, John Wallis; uno studioso dell'antichità, Anthony Wood. Ma uno soltanto di loro dice tutta la verità... Thriller di alto profilo e sorprendente originalità, sospeso tra finzione narrativa e fedele ricostruzione storica, "La quarta verità" ricrea magistralmente l'atmosfera, ma anche e soprattutto la mentalità di un'epoca tra le più complesse e affascinanti.
Ein wertvolles Landschaftsgemälde wird aus einer Ausstellung in Rom gestohlen. Flavia di Stefano, Dezernentin für Kunstraub, muss den politisch heiklen Fall diskret lösen. Ihr Mentor General Bottando warnt vor möglichen Konsequenzen, bietet aber seine Hilfe an, bleibt jedoch bei der Herkunft eines anderen Gemäldes geheimnisvoll.
Marco da Cola, gentiluomo di Venezia, presenta i suoi rispettosi ossequi. È mio desiderio narrare del viaggio che feci in Inghilterra nell'anno 1663, degli avvenimenti di cui fui testimone e delle persone che conobbi; argomenti, spero, non indegni dell'attenzione di quanti osservano con interesse le bizzarrie del mondo. Al tempo stesso, intendo con questo mio resoconto smascherare le menzogne di coloro che annoveravo un tempo, erroneamente, fra i miei amici. Il mio resoconto, credo, parlerà da sé. Molte cose ometterò, tuttavia nulla di significativo. Coloro che in tempi successivi mi fecero del male, li descriverò come li conobbi allora; mi asterrò del lanciare accuse ed eviterò di abbandonarmi a polemiche; racconterò la verità.
