Giotto S Hand

Product Description

Fascinating art-crime novel set in Italy from the bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost.
General Bottando of Rome’s Art Theft Squad is in trouble: his theory that a single master criminal, dubbed ‘Giotto’, is behind a string of major art thefts has aroused the scorn of his arch enemy and rival, the bureaucrat Corrado Argan. He needs a result, and the confession of a dying woman may just provide the vital clue.
In pursuit of the elusive Giotto, Bottando’s colleague, Flavia di Stefano, sets off hotfoot for Florence, and English art dealer Jonathan Argyll is dispatched to London and then on to rural Norfolk…only to discover a body and a mystery which could lead to the greatest art find of his career…

Review

‘An elegant and amusing book, perfect for those who love a clever puzzle’Frances Hegarty, Mail on Sunday
‘Iain Pears has a superior line in this kind of tale… A divertingly complex, often comic, story in which the art motif is ingeniously central to the solution’Guardian
‘Giotto’s Hand provides a wry and illuminating portrait of the often devious world of fine art’Val McDermid

From the Back Cover

General Bottando of Rome’s Art Theft Squad is in trouble: his theory that a single master criminal, dubbed ‘Giotto’, is behind a string of major thefts that has aroused the scorn of his arch enemy and rival, the bureaucrat Corrado Argan. He needs a result, and the confession of a dying woman may just provide the vital clue.
In pursuit of the elusive Giotto, Bottando’s colleague, Flavia di Stefano, sets off hotfoot for Florence, and English art dealer Jonathan Argyll is dispatched to London and then on to rural Norfolk … only to discover a body and a mystery which could lead to the greatest art find of his career.
“An elegant and amusing book, perfect for those who love a clever puzzle”FRANCES HEGARTY, 'Mail on Sunday'
“Iain Pears has a superior line in this kind of tale”MATTHEW COADY, 'Guardian'
“You don’t have to know much about art to enjoy Ian Pears’s Italian mysteries. Like a good teacher, he shares his passion unobtrusively and flavours his lessons with wit”VAL McDERMID

About the Author

Iain Pears won the Getty Scholarship to Yale University and worked for Reuters in Rome. He is the author of the bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost. He lives with his wife and son in Oxford.