False Images - Hardcover

Dunbar, Catherine

3.12

8 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708942946 ISBN 13: 9780708942949

Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books, 2000

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Art restorer Leone Fleming is quite pleased with her quiet life sharing a space with her friend Philippa's increasingly chic gallery off the north end of the Portobello Road and most of her leisure time

with her father, prominent judge Sir Richard Fleming. Then little ripples begin to ruffle the calm waters.
Whitcombs Gallery has sent Leone a charming portrait executed in 1742 by Walter Devis for cleaning. Its provenance is quite clear, yet she finds herself with doubts about the picture's authenticity. Expressing them incites the fury of Piers Carlton, son of the owners, who makes all manner of threats.
Meanwhile, a killer sentenced by Sir Richard to prison is out--and looking for revenge. Still haunted by dreams of the mother who one evening said good night and vanished forever, Leone dreads any danger to her father. Their close tie once split her from her lover, Jack. Now he, too, is back.
Meanwhile, Philippa takes up an exciting new artist and seems prepared to risk all on a show, and perhaps on an unwise affair. As the ripples build into waves, Leone is uncertain where to turn, even if one clear direction is back into her own muddled memories of the past. A shocking murder forces an election--and a revelation.
Moving quietly and intelligently, but with a clear sense of menace, Dunbar's twisty plot is peopled with vivid, sympathetic characters. After authoring several historical sagas, she succeeds in crafting a well imagined, suspenseful thriller.

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From Publishers Weekly:

English historical novelist Dunbar, who won the Mary Elgin Award for her debut book, has now written a first mystery, a romantic thriller that probes the undercurrents of family relationships, in the captivating, if slightly breathless, tradition of Mary Higgins Clark. Art restorer Leone Fleming becomes the target of a stalker after she discovers that a work purported to be a valuable heirloomAa portrait of the Wallace family by the 18th-century British painter Arthur DevisAis a fake. She's convinced that her harasser is the obnoxious Piers Carlton, the son of the family that's trying to sell the painting for an enormous price. However, her father, Sir Richard Fleming, a noted British judge, disagrees. And he has more important worries, as the police have informed him that Vic Morenzo, a gangland killer whom Sir Richard helped send to prison 15 years earlier, is out and has sworn revenge. Complicating matters further is the return of Leone's dashing former lover, Jack, an expert at spotting forgery, from whom she parted more acrimoniously than either would have liked. After Leone's best friend goes missing and then turns up dead, the police step in to investigate. But when both Jack and Piers first look equally blameless, then equally guilty, Leone realizes that she alone must determine who the real threat is. Dunbar's facile style and intricate plotting, as well as her haunting images of English family life and its secrets, will enthrall readers. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Art restorer Leone Fleming lives in London near her judge father, the target of an underworld figure out for revenge. Blissfully unaware, Leone blames a suspicious car and a break-in at her shared gallery on an unscrupulous art collector anxious to retrieve a forged painting his aging mother has asked Leone to restore. Art history and art galleries mix with mischief, as Leone sorts out the bad guys"and her feelings toward an ex-lover. Excellent plotting and detail, scary manipulations by the villains, and swiftly paced prose have made this a hot item in Britain. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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