This book is every bit as brilliant as the last one written by Alex Connor. She is an extremely talented lady and her background knowledge of her subject shines through clearly as well, without being overwhelming and off-putting. Connor is an artist, art historian and member of the FRSA. I particularly love the way she has included her own paintings in the front of the book and feel as if I have learned something, as well as enjoyed a thoroughly good book!

Somebody is torturing and killing art dealers. They are all members of an organisation called Der Kreis der Acht (circle of eight) and the surviving members are getting nervous as there aren’t that many of them left. All the dealers have associations and interests in the famous lost Caravaggio paintings and it is possible that they might be being killed for information relating to the whereabouts of the pictures. The original murders took place seven years ago in Germany, and were thought to be an isolated case, but, now that identical murders have taken place in London, Gil Eckhart, a former art expert who was involved the first time round, is called to solve the case once and for all. The closer he gets the higher the stakes become and soon threats are being made against the lives of his wife and unborn child. He isn’t happy and is determined to get to the bottom of everything, particularly as his first wife was killed at around the time of the first murders and it now looks as if she had known more about the missing paintings than she had previously let on.

A fabulous story of intrigue, double-dealing and betrayal - all delightfully mixed up with the real, ongoing mystery surrounding the location of two lost/stolen paintings by the infamous seventeenth century Italian painter. If you like good crime fiction and are also interested in art, but don’t want your murder victims drowned in too much paint, then you are going to simply love this book!

Highly Recommended.