In The Bernini Bust, a privately owned Los Angeles museum has just made two unusual purchases – a painting that doesn’t really fit into the museum’s collection, from lovable but rather bumbling dealer Jonathan Argyll, and an assortment of half-rate (and possibly fake) classical sculpture from a known-to-be-crooked dealer. However, it soon turns out that the latter dealer was tricked into smuggling a valuble marble bust by the famous Bernini out of Italy (which of course means that Flavia, from the Art Crimes squad in Italy gets called in) – a bust that possibly he had some connection to in the past. However, the museum’s owner-patron soon turns up murdered right before making a big announcement, and the shady dealer goes missing… the conclusions seem obvious.. but, of course, they’re not. This installment does suffer for being set in L.A. rather that the more colorful settings of Europe that Pears prefers, and I felt that Jonathan seemed a little too bumbling in this one.

See review for the entire series under "The Immaculate Deception" by the same author.

From the back of the book: Jonathan Argyll has finally done something right...he's sold an overpriced Titian to a well-endowed museum in L. A. Not bad for an art dealer who thinks selling paintings is the most unpleasant part of his job. And never mind that the Moresby Museum is known more for tackiness than for taste. Argyll's just anxious for the deal to be done...and he's come to L. A. to drop off the painting and pick up the check. But it turns out there are a few devils loose in the City of Angels. Like the sneaky art dealer whom Argyll suspects of smuggling a Bernini bust out of Italy. And the museum's imperious owner, who's got a lot more money than sense...and is murdered right before both the smuggler and the bust disappear..

Red Herring Art History Mystery. Protagonists are refreshingly human.

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