Landscape of Lies

 Landscape of Lies (1989) by Peter Watson

Isobel Sadler wakes up one night with the distinct impression that someone is in her house. She's right. And he's downstairs trying to steal a painting. She manages to scare him off and is left with questions. Why on earth was the man in the motorcycle helmet trying to steal the painting hanging in the downstairs hall? After she inherited the house and its contents from her father, she had gradually had to sell all the really valuable items to support the family farm. The Chinese porcelain, Japanese lacquer, and jade carvings that her father had brought home from his previous life as a diplomat were long gone. The painting wasn't worth anything. It was ugly and not particularly well-painted. All it held was sentimental value because it had been in her family for years and years. But what if she were wrong? Somebody obviously thought it was worth stealing.

So, she takes the painting to Michael Whiting, an art dealer recommended by a friend of her father's. He verifies that as a painting, it isn't worth much. A few hundred pounds, maybe. Definitely not more. It's what she expected and he seems surprised that she didn't think it a priceless treasure. Then she tells him the rest of the story--not long before the attempted theft, she had attended an estate sale which included letters and papers relating to the only famous (or, rather, infamous) person in her family tree. Sir William "Bad Bill" Sadler who helped oversee the dissolution of the monasteries in the 15th century. She wanted to acquire them for the family history and didn't expect anyone else to be interested. But someone was. A man named Molyneaux outbid her (on behalf of a client) and then chatted her up afterward--wanting to know if she was a dealer. When she told him of her family interest, he offered to see if the client would consent to photocopies and said he'd be in touch. He appeared at her house three days before the break-in--no photocopies yet, but "just in the area for an estate sale." Molyneaux was very tall. So was the burglar. Coincidence.

Michael isn't clear on what she wants of him. But she tells him that Edward Ryan (the man who recommended him) said he liked a gamble. She wants him to research the painting to see if there is any secret to it that would warrant a theft. And if the research leads to anything lucrative, she'll share the proceeds with him fifty-fifty. He agrees...and has no idea that the research will take the two of them through the myths and religious legends of early Britain in search of hidden monastic treasures and pit them against a man who will stop at nothing to have the treasure for himself. 

So...this starts well. The set-up is good. I really liked the idea of the hidden secrets in the old painting. The whole opening rocks--I like the way Isobel and Michael interact and work together in the early stages of the investigation. But then....the middle part drags and was really quite tedious with all the miscues & running round in circles and then sudden life-threatening events. The earlier danger made the final scenes with our villain lose a bit of their punch. And speaking of final scenes: the ending was too abrupt (especially after the middle dragged on so) and it was especially annoying that the discovery of the treasures was tacked on as a flashback in the epilogue. Seriously? The whole book is aiming towards the solution of the clues in the painting and the discovery of the treasure and when it happens it's regulated to a scene that seems more of an afterthought? Oh...and one final thing. Michael shoving bloody into every exclamation and adjective got to be absobloodylutely annoying. ★★ and 1/2 

1st line: The moment Isobel awoke she knew there was someone else in the house.

Last lines: Isobel smiled. "I wouldn't bet on it."
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Deaths = two natural; one drowned