August 1997
Set in the region made famous by his international bestseller A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle's new novel, Chasing Cézanne, is a wild chase through galleries, homes of prominent art collectors, and delectable restaurants that culminates in a true work of art.

The declining magazine Decorating Quarterly has a new editor, Camilla Jameson Porter. She has revamped the stodgy old magazine from top to bottom, giving it a more concise and hip name, DQ, a new look, and a sharp new edge. Andre Kelly, DQ's distinguished photographer, has the glamorous job of capturing on film the houses and treasures of the rich and famous. When he happens to have his camera ready as an original Cézanne painting is stolen from the home of an absent collector, Kelly suddenly finds himself on the trail of a state-of-the-art scam -- literally chasing Cézanne.

Notably missing from this latest diet-wrecking literary canap is Mayle's (Anything Considered) fixation on the truffle. In another conspicuous break with form, Mayle opens the action in New York rather than his beloved Provence. But readers hungry for French atmosphere should not lose heart. By the end of the first chapter, Paris-born, New York-based photographer Andr Kelly is winging his way to the Riviera on assignment for Camilla Jameson Porter, the sexy and ruthless editor of Decorating Quarterly magazine. In France, the young hero witnesses the trusted majordomo of a wealthy Frenchman loading what appears to be a priceless Czanne into a tradesman's van. After a suspicious meeting with the painting's owner, Andr consults Cyrus Pine, an aging expert in rare art (and the pleasures of board and bedroom) who also smells a rat. The two are joined by Lucy, Andr's sensual, Barbados-born agent, and the sybaritic crusaders dash from the Bahamas back to France in search of an enigmatic forger who may be able to unravel the mystery. Up against a sinister plot to flood the world with bogus masterpieces, the trio gourmandize their way across the South of France, staying just one jump ahead of an assassin. Blending rare art, treachery and steamy romance with ambiance and haute cuisine, Mayle serves up even warmed-over plot and character as blithely as if they were chefs d'oeuvre. (June)

Categories:

• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  
  
  • Thrillers & Suspense
    
    
    • Crime
      • Murder