Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not yet an antique !, 17 Nov 2003
This review is from: The Ten Word Game (Hardcover)
This latest episode in this long-running series doesn't disappoint ;the usual labyrinthan plot, a motley crew of weird and wonderful suspects , endless ephemera regarding antiques and history and of course a hero who is anything but! After the last few mainly home-based books it's nice to see Lovejoy on his travels again; here visiting Amsterdam,Oslo And St Petersburg on a Baltic cruise.As ever he (and the reader) don't really know what is happening until the last few pages. Leaving aside the narrative threads from the last two books (His 'son' Mortimer is mentioned but doesn't appear) this is a meandering tale which picks up pace whenever it hits land and thankfully confirms that age has not mellowed our man. For those not familiar with the books a good place to start, for the rest of us it leaves you eagerly awaiting the next installment.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The words are what it's about, 16 Sep 2004
By jaymac - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ten Word Game: Crime, Antiques and the Inimitable Lovejoy (Gash, Jonathan) (Hardcover)
I would read this book just for the words - words I've never seen before, juicy new words, almost none of which appear in my dictionary since they turn out to be British slang. I fall for British writers the way some people fall for accents. "Black hair fungated above his straining belt." "Benjie would marmalise me if I so much as looked at Gloria." "Once a boxer, he looks a real gent and wears a monocle, very Brigade of Guards, waistcoated, suit, George boots, a toff." "Rob the Hermitage, join this gaggle of duckeggs enacting a crazy Priscilla-of-the-Lower-Third dream?" "A crocodile of passengers," "I wittered, a perfect prat," "a mingy three pieces of toast ... a manky plate of toast," "I said, gormless," "scarpering through undergrowth...." How can you not like a book abounding with such charms?
The book has even more pleasures, chief among them antiques and art forgery. Lovejoy is a "divvy," someone who can divine true antiques by nearly fainting when he's in their presence. He's used this talent for a career just sort of definitely almost barely (his words) this side of the law. He is drawn against his will into a mysterious caper involving the Hermitage and a shipful of antique enthusiasts, almost none of whom can recognize a real antique from a fake. The mystery never completely resolves, a flaw that can be overlooked since it's secondary to the local color in the book. Occasional forays into the history of amber, pottery, wicker chairs and other antiques are a lot of fun, and Lovejoy is quite a storyteller. Is it true that Elvis once entered an Elvis impersonator contest and lost?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovejoy Takes A Cruise, 17 Jan 2004
By Dominic Smith - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ten Word Game: Crime, Antiques and the Inimitable Lovejoy (Gash, Jonathan) (Hardcover)
Here's another wonderful entry in the long running, always entertaining Lovejoy series. Once again the "lovable rogue" - I know, it's a hackneyed phrase, but also most appropriate - Lovejoy, the antique specialist with questionable ethics, is up to his old tricks in his usual inimitable style. Lovejoy is on the move, as usual the reason for this is to avoid capture, finding passage on a luxury liner for what could have been a very relaxing voyage. Of course, Lovejoy being Lovejoy, nothing is ever easy and a constant stream of unusual events soon enlivens the trip. These events shape his movements, backing him into a corner that puts him at his most imaginative in his bid to get out from under. The Lovejoy books are completely amusing and provide clever mysteries and this one lives right up to that billing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a smasher of a book!, 2 Mar 2006
By S. Schwartz "romonko" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ten Word Game (Paperback)
This book is a real smasher. We have Lovejoy at his very best here. And the setting that Gash has set this book in is quite wonderful. And the women! Lovejoy has a whole string of quite wonderful women in his orbit this time. Lovejoy is on the lam again, and while he's hiding out in Southampton he gets hijacked onto an ocean cruise to Russia that includes all points north. He's living the high life on the cruise, and he meets all kinds of weird and wonderful people, but it takes him a while to determine why he was shanghaied and what this group of crooks need him for. But never fear. The irrepressible Lovejoy lands on his feet and he'll be around to deal with other outrageous adventures.
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