Security expert Tim Lacy tracks a hoard of Post-Impressionist paintings to the bleak Rhone delta, with near fatal results.

---

Product Description

In the 1880s, Vincent van Gogh vainly attempted to recruit a number of avant-garde artists to settle in the neighbourhood of Arles and become the 'Impressionists of the South'. One of them, who had his own reasons for leaving Paris, did indeed travel to Arles, but subsequently exiled himself to the neighbouring Camarague. There, amidst the lagoons and marshes of Etang de Vaccares, painter Aristide Bertrand, the scion of a noble house, worked for a couple of years before vanishing without trace. Only three canvases by this frenzied genius seemingly survived until now. At a meeting in an untenanted East London office block, dealer Catherine Lacy is shown six reputed Bertrands, and offered the chance of selling a cache of his work recently discovered in an undisclosed location.Catherine is enormously excited, but her husband, security expert Tim Lacy, is less than thrilled when the agent concerned is fished out of the Thames. Swayed by the potential importance of this discovery, he finally agrees that their new associate, Emma Kerr, should go to Provence - with veteran George Martin to keep an eye on her. Within days, Emma is abducted, and Lacy himself must go looking for her. Now he finds himself with a bagful of mysteries to solve. Where is Emma? Who killed the agent, and why? How is Marseilles crime syndicate involved? Are the paintings genuine? Who are the members of the Camargue Brotherhood, self-appointed guardians of Bertrand's work and reputation? What made the artist's return to civilisation impossible? And whatever happened to Bertrand anyway? Only when he discovers the answers to these interrelated questions can Lacy secure Emma's release - if he is not too late already.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1919002 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 290 pages

About the Author
Three decades ago, at the end of a seven year stint teaching, travelling, broadcasting and writing text books in Kenya, Derek bundled his wife and three small children into a car, journeyed by ship to Karachi and then drove overland back to England and a new life as a full-time author. Since then he has devoted himself, as he says, to 'telling stories'. There have been several kinds of stories and several kinds of telling. Some have been factual - biographies and studies of intriguing past events. Some have been fictional - for the most part crime stories. Some have been tales told on radio or television in the form of plays and documentaries. Others have been presented to live audiences - narratives that have kept hearers enthralled and often challenged their preconceived ideas. In whatever medium Derek works his objective is always the same: 'My attitude is "Hey, folks, I've discovered something fascinating. May I tell you about it?"' Because Derek's interests and enthusiasms are wide the subject matter of his stories is diverse - the sagas of fabulously wealthy families, 18th century witchcraft, the building of the Channel Tunnel, murder in Renaissance Florence, the love affair of Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I. His varied projects have given him and continue to give him a great deal of fun. He has interviewed the Prince of Wales (for a programme on adventure training), sailed on a tall ship (for a book on Drake's circumnavigation), wined and dined at Bordeaux chateaux and Parisian mansions (for his study of the Rothschilds) and been admitted to the secret archives of Interpol. Today he lives in Devon and makes frequent forays to a secluded retreat in Normandy. These locations enable him to indulge his sundry passions - collecting art and antiques, French food and wine, helping new writers ('because I've been there and I know how tough it is'), speaking at literary events, travelling, and full involvement in the life of his church. Derek Wilson has scripted and presented scores of dramas and documentaries for BBC Radio 4. He has also contributed to several television programmes including "Drake's Last Voyage" (BBC2, Timewatch) and "Pirates" (Discovery Channel). Paul Mould Publishing will be releasing paperback editions of Derek's "Tim Lacy" series of artworld mystery titles, which were previously published by Headline Books and are now out of print. Tim Lacy is a security expert and denizen of the art world which teems with dubious dealers, unscrupulous collectors, fraudsters, crime bosses and bona fide connoisseurs, all in pursuit of the rare, the beautiful and the valuable.