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Nathaniel Hopson, a journeyman to the great cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale, is employed to install a new library in Horsehearth Hall, the Cambridgeshire seat of the cantankerous Lord Montfort. On the evening of its completion the obnoxious Montfort is found dead. His corpse is covered in leeches but he appears to have been shot and an elegantly carved wooden box lays by his side. With vast gambling debts it is assumed that he has committed suicide to prevent his creditor Lord Foley gaining control of the estate. Hobson (and Foley) are not so sure. After stumbling on the mutilated corpse of his colleague John Partridge (the man who designed the library) in a frozen pond nearby, Hobson is convinced Montfort was murdered. Could Partridge, a foundling, have had some claim to Montfort's fortune? How are Partridge, Montfort, Chippendale and Foley all connected to the Italian actress Madame Trenti? And just why is Chippendale so desperate to recover a series of drawings from Montfort's library? Although loosely based on real incidents and bolstered with plenty of authentic detail (Gleeson was a once a Sotheby's antique expert) this novel often resorts to some fairly hoary melodramatic conceits along the way. Hobson and cohorts, for example, seem to discover an extraordinary number of conveniently illuminating long lost letters. The dialogue doesn't always ring true, though there are a pleasing smattering of "I was a lusty one and twenty years" and more than a couple of wonderfully bawdy Boswell-isms. Despite its flaws this is still an immensely enjoyable historical detective yarn. --Travis Elborough
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. First edition, first printing of the first fictional novel by Gleeson. In fine / fine unread condition. Seller Inventory # 16306
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. First British Edition, First Printing with full number line. Signed, without inscription, by author on the FULL title page. Unread As New book in As New dust jacket. Authors first book. All our books are bubble wrapped and shipped in a sturdy box with Delivery Confirmation. NO remainder mark, NO previous owner markings or inscriptions, NOT price clipped, NOT a Book Club Edition, NOT an Ex-Lib. Dust jacket covered in protective clear wrapper. Signed. Seller Inventory # 000234
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. First edition in hardcover with dust jacket. Signed by Gleeson on the title page. Author's first novel. New/New. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 264161
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.41. Seller Inventory # Q-0593048032