A first crime novel which introduces General Bottando of the Italian Art Theft Department. The discovery of a previously unknown Raphael portrait rocks the art world. But what starts out as an embarrassment for the Italian government turns into much worse when murder enters the picture.

The fourth novel featuring art historian Jonathan Argyll and his girlfriend, Flavia di Stefano of Rome’s Art Theft Squad. Argyll is in Paris, where he undertakes to deliver a minor 18th-century painting to a client in Rome — simple enough, until the client and another possible buyer are murdered.

General Bottando of Rome’s Art Theft Squad is in trouble - his theory that a single master criminal, dubbed “Giotto”, is behind a string of thefts has aroused the scorn of his rival, the bureaucrat Corrado Argan. He needs a result, and the confession of a dying women provides clues.