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Fiona Katherine Elizabeth (Finn) Ryan is an American living in London and working as a client adviser at an auction house in Mayfair. She is disillusioned with living in London, the most expensive city in the world, and her job at the auction house, which consists of holding the hands of the 'whales' the high rollers who spend tens of thousands of pounds annually at Mason-Godwin. The oldest auction house in London only sells art, none of that other junk sold by Sotheby's, the second oldest auction house, or indeed, by the upstart, Christie's. The receptionist sends a scruffy-looking young man up to Finn's office. Billy Pilgrim has a painting that he hopes is a Jan Steen under his arm. Finn tells him it is a copy. He leaves, dejected, as he needed the money. The director of the auction house storms into Finn's office. It turns out that Billy Pilgrim is actually a royal, a close cousin to Elizabeth II. Finn is fired, but when she arrives home, she finds a hand delivered letter from a lawyer, asking her to a meeting the next day. When she goes to the attorney's office, she is met by Billy Pilgrim, who is also involved in the bequest, which consists of a small painting, purported to be a Rembrandt, a house in Amsterdam, and a freighter off the coast of Sarawak, all of which have to be claimed and visited within two weeks. Then the adventure begins. And it is an adventure worthy of Ripping Yarns. Billy and Finn are shot at outside the Courtauld where they have taken the painting for authentication. They sail to Amsterdam and find a hidden room in the house on the Herrengracht, but someone torches Billy's boat. They make their way to the South China Sea and board the freighter, only to be caught in a typhoon . . . This is a great beach or airplane book. In the words of John Lennon: "Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about." Just go along for the enjoyable ride.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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