The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears (Jonathan Argyll #7) (Dec 24/Jan 25)

[Susan]

Welcome to our Dec 24/Jan 25 buddy read of The Immaculate Deception
Published in 2000 this is the seventh, and final, book in the Jonathan Argyll series.

When a major painting is kidnapped days before an important international exhibition opens in Rome, Flavia di Stefano, newly appointed head of the Italian Art Squad, has a feeling her life is suddenly going to get very complicated. Things start badly when Flavia is told to get the painting back at all costs without causing any embarrassment to the country and without paying the ransom to the thieves. She knows she will be blamed if something goes wrong, and finds herself pushed ever further into unorthodox tactics to save both the painting and her job. Encouraged by her art-dealing lover Jonathan Argyll and her old boss, Taddeo Bottando, she delves deeply into past cases to try and identify those responsible for the kidnapping before it is too late, and in the process discovers a secret, lying hidden for decades, which gives her the biggest shock of her career. The Immaculate Deception, the seventh in Iain Pears's delightful Jonathan Argyll series, is a fascinating, witty and ingeniously plotted novel.

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Sandy]

I have it out of the library, but not sure when I will start. I have several Christmas books to get through.

[Frances]

I will be reading but I have three I'm hoping to join here this month so may be a while getting to them all.

[Judy]

I've just started this one, and am sad that it's the last, as I've enjoyed this series!

[Sandy]

I've started and was surprised that Flavia and Jonathan have been together for ten years. I never noticed if dates or time gaps were mentioned earlier, but there is only a year gap between this one and the last.

[Frances]

I'm part way through and really enjoying it so far. I'm just at the section where Flavia is interviewing neighbours of a suspect and reports she needs to find someone who disliked them to get the real scoop:
Half an hour later she had it all. Some details no doubt exaggerated,some even invented, but a portrait of the man in the sort of detail only pure bile could generate.