Iain Pears

An ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.We are in England in the 1660s. Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear the story of the death from four witnesses: an Italian physician intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of an alleged Royalist traitor; a master cryptographer who has worked for both Cromwell and the king; and a renowned Oxford antiquarian. Each tells his own version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.With rights sold for record-breaking sums around the world, An Instance of the Fingerpost is destined to become a major international publishing event. Deserving of comparison to the works of John Fowles and Umberto Eco, Iain Pears's novel is an ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.

In his most dazzling novel since the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents.A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home.Chronologically, it moves backwards–from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867– and in the process the quest to uncover the truth plays out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage, and the start of the twentieth century’s arms race.Like Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is an intricately plotted and richly satisfying puzzle–an erudite work of history and fiction that feels utterly true and oddly timely–and marks the triumphant return of one of the world’s great storytellers.

In Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own. He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who, while chasing after Lytten's cat one day, stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape—remarkably like the fantasy world Lytten is writing about. There she meets a young boy named Jay who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision—one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.

Three narratives, set in the fifth, fourteenth, and twentieth centuries, all revolving around an ancient text and each with a love story at its center, are the elements of this ingenious novel, a follow-up to the bestselling, An Instance Of The Fingerpost.The centuries are the fifth (the final days of the Roman Empire); the fourteenth (the years of the Black Death); and the twentieth (World War II). The setting for each is the same--Provence--and each has at its heart a love story. The narratives intertwine seamlessly, but what joins them thematically is an ancient text--"The Dream of Scipio"--a work of neo-Platonism that poses timeless philosophical questions. What is the obligation of the individual in a society under siege? What is the role of learning when civilization itself is threatened, whether by acts of man or nature? Does virtue lie more in engagement or in neutrality? "Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless," warns one of Pears's characters.

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.

An art critic journeys to a remote island off Brittany to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend, a gifted but tormented artist living in self-imposed exile. The painter recalls their years of friendship, the gift of the critic's patronage, and his callous betrayals. As he struggles to capture the character of the man, as well as his image, on canvas, it becomes clear that there is much more than a portrait at stake...

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...

Our Review When in RomeA stolen masterpiece with arcane allegorical significance; a decades-old political kidnapping and murder; and, of course, a tantalizing artwork of unknown provenance -- in his seventh Jonathan Argyll art mystery, The Immaculate Deception, English art historian Iain Pears returns with a virtuosic display of ingenious plotting and literary trompe l'oeil.Pears's clever and effortlessly erudite art mysteries have found a select readership on both sides of the Atlantic. But the phenomenal success of Pears's 1998 literary thriller, An Instance of the Fingerpost -- a multifaceted Restoration whodunit on a par with Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose -- has dramatically increased stateside interest in the author's earlier work. The Immaculate Deception once again centers on the exploits of the affable and perpetually distracted English art dealer Jonathan Argyll; the beautiful and formidable Flavia di Stefano of the Italian Art Theft Squad; and hererstwhile boss, General Taddeo Bottando, along with several of the series' usual -- or, more appropriately -- unusual supporting cast of suspects.When a masterpiece on loan for the opening of an international exhibition is stolen in a manner calculated to embarrass the Italian government, Flavia di Stefano is ordered by the newly installed prime minister to recover the painting at all costs. Her deceptively simple mandate quickly reveals itself to be a politically fraught, no-win situation. If is she meets the thief's ransom demands, she'll almost certainly be disgraced -- and perhaps go to jail; if she refuses the order, she'll be summarily removed from her post. With Jonathan jaunting through the Tuscan countryside on the trail of an interesting art collection, Flavia turns to her oldfriend and confidant General Bottando for advice. As a seasoned survivor of the Roman political arena himself, he suggests that she follow the time-honored convention and do as other Romans: "When faced with deviousness, you must be devious yourself."Working together, Flavia and Bottando devise a plan to recover the painting. But no sooner has the ransom been paid than the art-napper -- a former '60s radical turned bourgeois performance artist -- is found dead under highly suspicious circumstances. Worse, Bottando himself has disappeared without a trace, leaving Flavia to face her first major crisis as head of the ArtSquad alone. Risking official censure and hounded by a sinister journalist, Flavia explores the tenuous connection between a decades-old act of terrorism and recent events, only to discover a secret conspiracy that could topple the government -- or cost her her life.Like Michael Dibdin's award-winning Aurelio Zen novels, Pears's Jonathan Argyll mysteries go beyond genre fundamentals to immerse readers in every aspect of contemporary Italian culture -- from its legendary art and cuisine to the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the political and criminal justice systems to candid, unexpectedly breathtaking portrayals of everyday life. The Immaculate Deception is a splendid addition to a mystery series of the first order, and an exuberant confirmation of Iain Pears as a modernmaster of the form. --Greg Marrs

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

Hired to deliver a painting from a Parisian art dealer to a client in Rome, British art historian and amateur sleuth Jonathan Argyll suddenly finds himself caught up in a double murder and begins a probe that uncovers a secret hidden since World War II. Reprint.

Someone's planning to raid an ancient monastery in Rome. But why? And when? Enter art expert Jonathan Argyll...

General Bottando can't believe his rotten luck. He has just been promoted--to a position that's heavy on bureaucratic duties-but disturbingly light on investigative responsibilities. As if that wasn't annoying enough, he's received a tip about a planned raid at a nearby monastery. He's relying on his colleague Flavia di Stefano and her art-expert fiancé, Jonathan Argyll, to thwart the plot-but both are beyond baffled. The only valuable item in the monastery's art collection is a supposed Caravaggio that's currently being restored. There are no solid suspects-unless you count the endearing art thief, the flagrantly flamboyant "Rottweiler of Restoration," and the strangely shady icon expert. And there's really no reason to cause an unholy uproar-until someone commits an unconscionable crime...

This is the simplest tale in the world. Two people meet and fall in love. But the route which brought Larissa Salmina and Francis Haskell to a backstreet Venetian restaurant in 1962 was anything but straightforward.Larissa was born in northern Russia, the daughter of a Soviet army officer from a noble family who survived the siege of Leningrad by eating cats’ tails and being evacuated over the ice. Francis was the grandson of an Iraqi Jew, forever feeling out of place in his adopted country of England. How they could meet and instantly understand each other so profoundly that both were prepared to risk heartbreak, and in her case, retribution, to be together is the story of this book.Escaping Leningrad, teenage Larissa lived in the Urals surrounded by Spanish revolutionaries, went feral and after the war rose to become the youngest Commissar in the Soviet Union and Keeper of Italian Drawings at the Hermitage. She took the Russian contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1962 and lost it on the journey. She briefly absconded with her supervisor’s corpse, developed a useful sideline in forgery, and stole (“I didn’t steal it. I liberated it”) a Matisse from the Italian government. She was a trained connoisseur and could spot a Tiepolo at 100 yards.Francis was a distinguished art historian, comfortably at home in King’s College Cambridge. But he was lonely, self-doubting and had all but abandoned hope of falling in love, or finding anyone who could love him. Larissa swept away all the years of anguish in one meal. Bestselling novelist and art historian Iain Pears’ fabulous book brings into sharp focus the strange world of the Soviet Union, and the even stranger world of a certain variety of the English elite. It seeks to show how leaving the Soviet Union was a sacrifice for her and how it was the English man, not the Russian woman, who was set free because of their meeting.Iain Pears knew both his principal characters well. His book is a story of Europe; not the Europe of geographical and ideological divisions but of a certain mentality which was common to a few on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Whatever their differences in nationality, language, and politics, both Larissa and Francis were members of a unified, pan-European culture which paid little heed to the divisions which so pre-occupied most people of the age. It also operated by very different rules and values to the societies in which they existed. It was a world of dancers, exiles, and the occasional spy, of artists, aristocrats, and academics. It consisted of people who only felt safe when they were away from home, were comfortable only in the company of foreigners. It is a tale of a world we seem to have lost.

PEARS, THE DISCOVERY OF PAINTING. THE GROWTH INTEREST IN THE ARTS IN ENGLAND, 1680-1768 [HARDBACK]. NEW HAVEN, CT, 1988, 291 p. figuras.Encuadernacion original. Nuevo.

«Загадка Рафаэля» – первый роман в серии восхитительных интеллектуальных детективов Йена Пирса о преступлениях в мире искусства, которые расследуют английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл, следователь Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо. Детективы Йена Пирса – это изысканное пиршество для души и мозга.Молодой английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл полагает, что обнаружил неизвестную картину Рафаэля в замшелой римской церквушке. Правда, пока он занимался своим расследованием, его арестовали за бродяжничество, но ведь это такие мелочи! Картину тем временем продали в частную коллекцию и передали в национальный музей, и наш герой подозревает, что произошло мошенничество в особо крупных размерах. Для расследования он объединяет силы со специальным отрядом римской полиции, и тут события закручиваются так, что содрогнулся весь мир искусства... Кровь, ложь и подделки в самом культурном детективе года – «Загадка Рафаэля»Please This audiobook is in Russian.

«Гибель и возрождение» – очередной роман в серии восхитительных интеллектуальных детективов Йена Пирса о преступлениях в мире искусства, которые расследуют английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл, следователь Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо. Детективы Йена Пирса – это изысканное пиршество для души и мозга.Получив предупреждение о готовящемся ограблении старинного монастыря, полицейские уверены, что под угрозой находится хранящаяся там картина Караваджо. Однако когда преступление происходит на самом деле, исчезает другая картина - имеющая огромную символическую ценность для местных жителей, некогда спасшая их от беды, а в монастыре находят мертвое тело... Нашим героям предстоит очередное расследование, и, как всегда, оно будет невероятно увлекательным, полным изысканного пирсовского юмора и восхитительных исторических экскурсов.Please This audiobook is in Russian.

Barcelona. 24 cm. 557 p. Encuadernación en tapa dura de editorial. Traducción del inglés por Vicente Villacampa. Traducción The dream of Scipio .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8432296244, 9788432296246

«Бюст Бернини» – третий роман в серии восхитительных интеллектуальных детективов Йена Пирса о преступлениях в мире искусства, которые расследуют английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл, следователь Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо. Детективы Йена Пирса – это изысканное пиршество для души и мозга.Вокруг уникального произведений искусства - бюста работы итальянского скульптора Джованни Бернини – сгущаются тучи. Американский коллекционер, который приобрел бесценную скульптуру для калифорнийского музея, был убит, – не успев сообщить что-то очень важное. Единственный, кто мог пролить свет на его смерть, также найден мертвым.В довершение всего, сам бюст бесследно исчез. К счастью, Джонатан Аргайл как раз должен был доставить в тот же музей бесценную картину кисти Тициан, и теперь он возьмется за расследование этого дела. На помощь ему мчится Флавия ди Стефано, а значит, дело обещает быть интересным...Please This audiobook is in Russian.

Storytel представляет – большой исторический роман от признанного мастера интеллектуального детектива.«Сон Сципиона» – это масштабный и искусно сработанный текст, в котором сплетаются воедино философские рассуждения, исторические экскурсы и – как это часто бывает у Йена Пирса – увлекательное расследование. Что объединяет трех героев, живших в пятом, четырнадцатом и двадцатом веках? Все трое пытались выжить в Авиньоне и противостоять миру, охваченному безумием: вокруг них бушуют последние дни Римской Империи, эпидемия черной смерти и Вторая Мировая война. Всех троих связывает древний текст, бесценный манускрипт пера Манлия под названием «Сон Сципиона».Трагедия, любовь и мучительный этический выбор – в этом романе Пирс затрагивает очень непростые темы, но делает это со свойственным ему изяществом. Масштабное интеллектуальное полотно поражает читателя своим размахом, но отнюдь не подавляет: в первую очередь, Пирс пишет легко и ясно, и любовь к людям ощущается в его произведениях ничуть не меньше любви к искусство – или, как в этом романе, к истории.Please This audiobook is in Russian.

«Рука Джотто» – очередной роман в серии восхитительных интеллектуальных детективов Йена Пирса о преступлениях в мире искусства, которые расследуют английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл, следователь Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо. Детективы Йена Пирса – это изысканное пиршество для души и мозга.Преступления прошлого порой всплывают совершенно неожиданно. Генерал Боттандо никак не ожидал получить от умирающей женщины признание в краже многолетней давности, но именно это признание могло бы помочь ему поймать неуловимого преступника, действующего под псевдонимом Джотто. Однако интриги в римской полиции не дают ему добиться желаемого, и на помощь приходят Флавия ди Стефано и ее жених, Джонатан Аргайл. Однако, пытаясь выяснить личность загадочного вора, наши герои находят его убитым...

«Идеальный обман» – седьмой роман в цикле восхитительных интеллектуальных детективов Йена Пирса о преступлениях в мире искусства, которые расследуют английский искусствовед Джонатан Аргайл, следователь Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо. Детективы Йена Пирса – это изысканное пиршество для души и мозга.Когда шедевр Клода Лоррена был похищен по пути из Рима в Париж, ситуация казалась безвыходной. К счастью, за дело берутся Флавия ди Стефано и генерал Боттандо, благодаря которым картину удается вернуть, пусть и в обмен на крупную сумму. Однако похититель вскоре умирает, причем при самых подозрительных обстоятельствах, а сам Боттандо бесследно исчезает. Что произошло, и что скрывал сам Боттандо? Флавии предстоит расследовать это дело без помощи своего бывшего начальника и друга, и в процессе становится ясно, что на кону ее собственная жизнь. Политические интриги, предательство и скрытые силы – все это сплелось воедино в новом детективе Йена Пирса.

Rayon : Roman Editeur : Belfond Date de parution : 2006 Description : In-8, 189 pages, souple, avec jaquette, occasion, bon état. Envois quotidiens du mardi au samedi. Les commandes sont adressées sous enveloppes bulles. Photos supplémentaires de l'ouvrage sur simple demande. Réponses aux questions dans les 12h00. ATTENTION : Les expéditions de plus de 2 kilos se voient appliquer un supplément de port. Un envoi en Mondial Relay est possible en France et en Europe. IMPORTANT : Le service économique d'envoi de livres à l'international "livres et brochures" prendra fin au 1er juillet 2025. Clients internationaux, profitez des derniers mois de ce tarif très avantageux. N'hésitez pas à vous renseigner avant de passer commande. Librairie Le Piano-Livre. Merci. Référence catalogue 34915. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thanks