The fascinating new art-crime novel from lain Pears, bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost.
In the seventh in Iain Pears's highly acclaimed series, General Taddeo Bottando of Rome's Art Squad has reluctantly taken the decision to retire from the job he has been doing for so long it's become a way of life. As a final service - and a last gesture - he offers to help Flavia di Stefano when she is instructed to recover a painting being held to ransom.
The case, though, becomes more complicated when English art dealer Jonathan Argyll gets himself involved. What started as a straightforward demand for money rapidly escalates into something altogether more serious and General Bottando finds himself inextricably linked with the case in a way that he could not possibly have foreseen ... for its roots go back to the very beginning of the General's interest in the world of art theft.