A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair

Lovejoy #21

by Jonathan Gash

What bliss! Lovejoy is back, in his 21st adventure--and while Jonathan Gash (The Possessions of a Lady, The Rich and the Profane, etc.) might be forgiven if things were getting a bit stale by this point, happily, A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair is anything but dull. This latest adventure sends Lovejoy, an antiques dealer and sometime forger with a gift for sensing genuine articles from fake, trawling the London markets from Camden Passage to Portobello, in order to find out who's passed dud gemstones to Dosh Callaghan. But after stopping to say hello to his old friends Arthur and Colette Goldhorn, he finds that their antiques shop has been commandeered by the unspeakable Dieter Gluck, a suave thug with muscular friends. Arthur is dead, Colette is on the street, and their son Mortimer has mysteriously disappeared. When Lovejoy sets out to save the day, he finds out that conning a con can be a dangerous proposition, and he'll need every ounce of trickiness to keep more corpses from "These markets look the soul of innocence, street barrows lined up under merry bunting. In fact they can be scary, while seeming the friendliest places on earth. You've been warned. Much good warnings ever do, though. When greed and antiques meet everybody ignores warnings." As usual, Gash peppers his pages with a glorious assortment of supporting characters (i.e., accomplices): meet Lydia, Lovejoy's prim and proper apprentice; Tinker, a phlegmatic burglar with a powerful thirst; and Trout, a midget who specializes in Tarzan sing-o-grams. But Lovejoy's voice is the real delight; he is anxious to educate his readers in all manner of antiques arcana--the importance of using real vellum in faking Renaissance miniatures; the history of the great Dogon mask fraud; how to forge scholarly impressions of Roman coins with a bit of isinglass and ochre. His lectures and wry meditations on the foibles of humanity are delivered with the mix of wide-eyed amazement and effortless humor that Gash's readers have come to appreciate and expect. A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair will have Lovejoy fans new and old crying, "Bring on number 22, and hurry, please!" --Kelly Flynn

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, British Literature

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

John Grant is an English crime writer, who writes under the pen name Jonathan Gash. He is the author of the Lovejoy series of novels. He wrote the novel The Incomer under the pen name Graham Gaunt.

Grant is a doctor by training and worked as a general practitioner and pathologist. He served in the British Army and attained the rank of Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was head of bacteriology at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the University of London between 1971 and 1988.

Grant won the John Creasey Award in 1977 for his first Lovejoy novel, The Judas Pair. He is also the author of a series of medical thrillers featuring the character Dr. Clare Burtonall.

Grant lives outside Colchester in Essex, the setting for many of his novels. He has also been published in Postscripts.

Reviews

[Shannon Power · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was good and the imagery was well done but it felt like things were dragged out. There were moments where the plot felt unique, exciting, and suspenseful, but there was no pay off. Not to spoil the book, but there’s over 200 pages of build up to the climax and it all gets thrown out. The goal of the book completely changes for the rest of the book, only for it to change again as you get closer to the end. Lovejoy does everything in the book for absolutely nothing and the ending made the whole book feel like a waste of time.

[Tero · Rating 2 out of 5]

The antiques-loving Lovejoy spends most of the book wandering around, meeting familiar faces, then wandering some more, meeting more people, and repeating the cycle. While I found the story too uneventful for my taste, I enjoyed the art-historical descriptions and the moments when the protagonist is "divvying." These sections were well written, and despite all the aimless wandering with seemingly no payoff, the book still managed to hold my interest until the end.

It was nice to see both Tinker and Lovejoy's female apprentice return, though unfortunately, their roles in this book were quite small. Lovejoy’s charming "pets", hedgehog and robin make brief appearances, and while there are many interesting details about antiques, there’s no particular standout antique this time around.

Unlike some of the earlier Lovejoy books, this one didn’t make me laugh out loud anymore. That said, the biggest issue I had with this otherwise better-than-it-sounds-in-this-review -book wasn’t the many characters or even the aimlessness of the plot—by now, I’ve come to accept that as part of the later series’ rhythm. The real letdown was the Mortimer character: he remains a stranger to Lovejoy, despite the narrative setting up an expectation that their relationship would develop. That potential emotional arc could have added more of a human dimension and some real dramatic weight.

While the storytelling was interesting, it could have been more engaging and emotionally resonant. All in all, one of the better "Lovejoy thrillers" I've read among the latter books in the series (though "thriller" may be stretching the term), but, sadly, still far from the best in the series, in my opinion.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2080503.html[return][return]For someone who claims over and over that he hates London, Lovejoy spends a lot of time there in this novel, which has all the rambles of the later books in the series (only three more after this, including The Ten Word Game and Faces in the Pool). At least, however, there is a core plot - with admittedly an awful lot of distraction - in which an even randier than usual Lovejoy attempts to wreak justice on those who have hounded a former lover, caused the death of her husband and threatened their son. (Whose son? Hmm.) There are some lovely Lydia moments as well - she is the most entertaining of the semi-regular characters in these books, and will get an unexpected twist in her tale in a couple of books' time - and the usual incredible detail about antiques and other issues (such as the precise distinction between a padparadsha and a tsavorite). I don't think this is a gateway book for non-Lovejoy fans, but it's an entertaining book for those of us who are.

[Magda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the whole thing. I didn't like the main character or almost any of his friends or enemies. The dialogue, the way the dialogue was presented, and the plot were difficult or impossible to follow. The minor character I did like got what he deserved, but the rest was a mess I wish I hadn't bothered to read, and I'm wondering why on earth I got this from inter-library loan in the first place. Ah, well. With most of the books I don't "get," I feel dumb, but with this one I was just annoyed, as though it were made to be especially pretentious or obtuse.

[Candy Wood]

I hadn't read any of this series for years (not that fond of the Lovejoy character), but this one stands on its own. I enjoyed the antiques lore and the London setting--Spitalfields, Bermondsey, Portobello, Dulwich--he really gets around in this one.

[Redruth1955 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of the Jonathan Gash books.

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, but marked as 3 because it is just my type of story. May be worth more if you are into this type of theme.

[Kathy]

Gold by Gemini killed any thought of finishing out the series. This was not read.