The Ruffian on the Stair
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- £1.49
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- £1.49
Publisher Description
Seb Rolvenden is a writer who lives in a lighthouse in Essex. On his grandfather's death he comes into some papers which reveal that Seb's grandfather, when young, was involved in the sensational disappearance in London of Julian Warbeck, an impressionist painter, and his masterpiece, Ruffian on the Stair.
Seeing a book in this, Seb goes off in pursuit of a trail of clues left in his grandfather's papers, unwittingly alerting others who are also after the lost masterpiece. His enquiries lead him to Jersey and to France, where among Seb's discoveries is the grave of the Vickybird, a vicious Victorian rentboy and artist's model whom his grandfather had known in London in the 1890s and who may have been the actual murderer of Julian Rawbeck.
As the mystery deepens a chance encounter leads Seb to the whereabouts of the missing masterpiece - but the painting has one further explosive secret to reveal to him.
Praise for Gary Newman's Previous Novels
'In what turns out to be an intriguing case of murder and romance, the author brings London's East End and India under the Raj vividly to life' Publishers Weekly
'The author succeeds admirably in recreating Victorian London, both in character and setting. Fans of Anne Perry and other Victorian mysteries will enjoy.' Library Journal
'A most satisfying gothic detective tale' Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sebastian "Seb" Rolveden, a freelance writer who lives in a lighthouse on the Essex coast, undertakes an arduous quest after receiving a notebook belonging to his late grandfather and namesake in this convoluted mystery from British author Newman. The title refers to 19th-century Anglo-Swedish impressionist Julian Rawbeck's dark masterpiece, which Seb eventually tracks down after a long search from seedy London neighborhoods to the isle of Jersey, and eventually across to Normandy, all places associated with the enigmatic painter and his devotees, most especially Seb's grandfather. Evidence emerges implicating Sebastian senior, a bohemian painter turned preacher, in Rawbeck's violent death in a pub garret. Gallery owners, antique dealers and various other minor characters muddy the case, yet Seb perseveres to a happy if complicated outcome to his exhausting pursuit. Newman is the author, as Gerard Williams, of Dr. Mortimer and the Aldgate Mystery and other titles in the Dr. Mortimer series.
