The Last Judgement

Witty Italian art-history crime series featuring English dealer Jonathan Argyll, from the author of the best-selling literary masterpiece, ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’.

Paris can do strange things to a man's mind… like making him agree to an apparently harmless favour of escorting a picture to Rome.

‘The Death of Socrates’ is a particularly nondescript piece, so art dealer Jonathan Argyll can sympathize when its recipient refuses to accept delivery. But in an unusual twist, the same man is found dead a few hours later. Surely the painting wasn't that bad?

Now caught up in a murder investigation, Jonathan recalls an attempt to steal the artwork while he was at the train station. Could this be the killer? The bodies start piling up and Jonathan must uncover the dark wartime secret at the heart of the mystery – before someone puts him out of the picture for good.

Reviews

‘A witty and exceptionally brilliant puzzler’ Sunday Times

‘Fresh, contemporary and coloured with sardonic wit’ She

Praise for the Jonathan Argyll novels:

'Superior entertainment.' Allan Massie, Scotsman

'There is nothing so satisfactory as the deconstruction of a puzzle in the hands of such an erudite and sure-footed author.' The Times

'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday

'Iain Pears writes delightfully witty, elegant, well-informed crime novels.' The Times

'You don't have to know much about art to enjoy Iain Pears's Italian mysteries. Like a good teacher, he shares his passion unobtrusively and flavours his lessons with wit.' Val McDermid

'Pears is a delightful writer, with a light, ironic touch.' Mail on Sunday

About the author

Iain Pears won the Getty Scholarship to Yale University and worked for Reuters in Rome. He is the author of the bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost. He lives with his wife and son in Oxford.