Mortal Ruin - Hardcover

Malcolm, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002321688 ISBN 13: 9780002321686

Publisher: Collins Crime Club, 1988

Synopsis

First American edition. What does Winston Churchill's uncle have to do with a contemporary murder? That's the question international art expert Tim Simpson must answer as he probes the secrets of the past. Author John Malcolm, likened by critics to writers such as Dick Francis and Jonathan Gash, gives us a beautifully crafted, fast-paced mystery with intriguing insights into the world of art, antiques, and rare books. 190 pages. quarter cloth and paper-covered boards, dust jacket. small 8vo..

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This is the sixth adventure for Tim Simpson ( The Gwen John Sculpture , Whistler in the Dark , etc.), former rugby player-turned-art expert and merchant banker. Here Tim traces the history of Winston Churchill's uncle, Moreton Frewenknown as Mortal Ruin for his many disastrous financial schemes. In Chicago to evaluate the possibility of opening another American branch of Christerby's, his firm's art-auction house, Tim is set upon by three thugs who are after his briefcase. The office of the firm's lawyers is burglarized, and then a man holding gold-mine certificates once owned by Frewen is killed. A complicated trail based on the hypothetical existence of an unknown Sargent portrait of the three Jerome sisters (Jenny Jerome was Sir Winston's mother) leads Tim back to New York and then to a remote cottage in Ireland. A likable and erudite supporting cast includes Tim's roommate Sue, a curator at the Tate, and the aged son of a retainer at the Frewen estate near Cork. Simpson and company offer pleasant entertainment as they explore greed and other passions easily aroused by fine art.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Collins Crime Club
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0002321688
• ISBN 13: 9780002321686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192