More books

Still reading away the summer. Last week it was The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears which is the first in a series of seven books about art forgery and theft in Italy. This one was quite sweet if slight. Jonathon Argyll, a fish out of water English student in Rome, tries to prove that someone stole a painting by Raphael in the eighteenth century for the sake of his academic reputation only to be foiled by dastardly forgers who are trying to profit from his discoveries in the twentieth century.

We're introduced to the dedicated and specialist (fictionalised) Art Theft Squad of the Italian police who trace stolen national treasures. Flavia da Stephano, one of its researchers, is quite strong on keeping Italian art in Italy despite four hundred years of legal and illegal exports. These poor public servants struggle against public apathy, incredibly lax museum security and the fabulous wealth of the international art market.

The book has lots of detail about living in Rome: the suicidal traffic, the food (a day without ice-cream is a day wasted!), the coffee, the good sense of living within walking distance of work and the joy of the times of the year when the tourists aren't about. It also visits Siena where the characters get incredibly lost driving round looking for a hotel and end up reversing up a one way street. This reminded me of one of the most difficult hours of my life where I valiantly tried to advise an extremely stubborn male driver how to navigate through Siena in rapidly falling dusk while reading a tiny Lonely Planet map. We did something like half a dozen illegal u-turns - twice in front of the Cathedral - and ended up abandoning the car to ask directions as I'd suggested doing in the first place.

So, a good fun potboiler but not anywhere near the same level as The Instance of the Fingerpost.