Sin within Her Smile, The

The antiques world's roguish dealer is back in The Sin Within Her Smile - his most perilous scam to date. When Lovejoy himself is put on the block among marmalades and lawnmowers at a charity auction and billed as "Slave for a Day" - the bidding soars. To Lovejoy's alarm, two rich women vie for his services, the winner paying an outrageous sum. Lovejoy speculates nervously on what the luscious mystery woman in the pale blue chiffon could possibly want from him. He should have known. Through the mysterious woman in blue, he's soon embroiled in a scam involving Celtic gold finds. But the joke turns deadly earnest when an overinquisitive friend is found murdered. Cutting and running looks like Lovejoy's best bet, and when he's promised a priceless artifact in payment for a trip to Wales, he leaps at the opportunity. As Lovejoy sets out on his journey, the irony of his situation slowly dawns on him - his fellow travelers are those same mental patients on whose behalf he was auctioned! But the more time he spends with them - and with the townspeople - the more he realizes "sanity" is a relative term. Studded with antiques discoveries and overtures from the opposite sex, this might have been the trip of a lifetime. But when the corpses begin to pile up, Lovejoy realizes it could be his last trip ever. . . . Jonathan Gash triumphs again in this fastpaced, thrilling, hilarious tale that will, as always, enthrall antiques buffs and mystery readers alike.