The Tartan Sell

This fun read is a typical Lovejoy adventure, chock full of villains, charlatans, heavies and assorted beautiful ladies. Our hero, Lovejoy, antiques dealer and "divvie" par excellence, becomes involved with a travelling carnival and makes close friends and a few enemies before escaping into the Scottish Highlands, masquerading as a third cousin of the Clan McGunn who are on their last legs, financially. The present Clan Chief is a young, crippled girl who is saving face by occupying just a few of the many rooms of a crumbling castle. With the help of Lovejoy and his friends, they organise a huge sale of Highland antiques, some as old as yesterday and some genuine. Lovejoy even gives classes on how to reproduce pieces of furniture with the least possible risk of detection. When his nemesis in the form of Dobson, a genuine killer, and his cronies tracks him down, he once again takes flight by night, with some of his new found friends acting as muscle against his enemies. It's all a lot of fast, energetic fun, with Lovejoy loving and leaving his female friends across the country.

I can't believe that I'm the first to review this book. It is absolutely wonderful! I've been reading the Lovejoy series, and so far, this is arguably my favourite of this great series. Lovejoy is very lovable in this book. When he sets out to help someone, he does it in a big way. While on the trail of killers again, he finds himself in northern Scotland at a manor house called Tachnadray. It's a mouldering mansion with not an antique in sight, but that doesn't stop the irrepressible Lovejoy from arranging a big auction sale. What he does is called "papering" in the antiques trade. It means you have an auction where you let it be known that you're auctioning off a family's antiques, and then you bring antiques in from everywhere and pretend they're from this family's store. That's what I mean about a Lovejoy book - you find out so much about the antiques trade (both legal and illegal). Lovejoy is at his best in this one. It's quite hilarious how hard he has to work to achieve his objectives. The part of the book where he earns his keep by being a carney is quite hilarious. This is a great addition to the Lovejoy series, and I can't wait for more.