The Titian Committee (Art History Mystery)

Intricate plots. Keep you reading to very end!

This book was OK but somehow just didn't keep me going. I finished it but it required discipline. I have other Ian Pears books to read and hope they are better than this one.

The light hearted and scholarly mysteries by Iain Pears are a delight--like those of Venice by Donna Leon, he takes us into the center of his chosen city --Rome--and sustains his plots, together with the budding romance between the bumbling Jonathan and the well-drawn detective--Fabia. Donna Leon's are even finer, but these are great fun.

Easy read. Sometimes you need a nice pleasant story to relax you at night.

All books in this series are highly amusing

Second in the series featuring Jonathan Argyll (art historian and dealer), Flavia di Stefano (detective for Rome's Art Theft Squad) and her wily boss, General Taddeo Bottando. This time the mystery arises within an academic committee where members are less than collaborative and more dangerous than they appear. The Venice setting adds texture to a who-done-it and why plot. Highly recommended for those who love a mystery with an insider's view of the art world.

I enjoyed this novel. Not quite as suspenseful as I hoped, but still good. Argyll, Flavia and Bottando make a good team in Italy.

The language and plot remain at the forefront to give flesh to the bones of Argyll and Pears other engaging Italians and Europeans

This is another highly entertaining novel featuring Flavia di Stefano, from the Italian Art Crime Commission and Jonathan Argyll, the generally hapless but well-intentioned scholar, now working for prominent London dealer, Sir Edward Byrnes.Over recent years, the Italian art authorities had become increasingly concerned at the proliferation on the market of paintings allegedly by Titian but lacking robust provenance. They had, therefore, set up a committee to review all known works in Italy attributed to Titian, to determine whether or not the attribution was legitimate. The Committee is made up of academics and gallery curators, and it meets every few months in a variety of notable settings. All seems to be goiung well, until one oif its member, an ambitious American academic, is found murdered in an exclusive garden in Venice, near where the Committee had been meeting.Because of the victim’s background, the case is referred to General Bottando, head of Flavia’s unit, who delegates her to liaise with the local police authorities in Venice. While there she happens upon Argyll, who has been attempting to negotiate the purchase of several works from a wealthy Venetian widow. As luck would have it, the widow’s name had appeared in the deceased woman’s notes.While his later works such as An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio occasionally proved challenging (yet also highly rewarding) to the reader, his earlier novels are far lighter in tone. Flavia and Argyll are very engaging, and Pears writes with a humour that was absent from his later works. The plots are soundly constructed, too, and the clues to the identity of the villains are there (even if I didn’t pick them up myself).

If you’re deeply into the art business, fine, maybe you’ll be stimulated, but I found the endless intricate twists & turns of this plot increasingly tedious. I stopped caring. Characters shallow, dialogue all on the same frivolous level. Not Pears’ best by a long haul.

Convoluted, lightweight, too clever for its own good. Poorly drawn characters. Competent, with lots of art erudition. Won't read any more of this series.

This was not nearly as good as Iain Pears' 'The Instance of the Fingerpost.' Most of the characters were quite flat and the mystery didn't develop much until the obligatory twist at the end.

A page turner and credible back stories.