Customer Reviews

Landscape of Lies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I picked this book up at random off of a library shelf about 10 years ago and it turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read. A great mix of intrigue, mystery, history and art, this book should have been a best-seller! I highly recommend it! Theives try to steal an old, worthless painting which turns out to be a treasure map - if deciephered correctly, it will show the location of the treasures of one of the most wealthy monasteries in England, hidden during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and never found since. There is a race between the lead characters and the "bad guy" to see who can figure out the historical clues in the map and get to the treasure first!

This is a first-rate, fascinating tale. Pick up a copy!

It's a must to have the dust jacket though - it is a copy of the painting that turns out to be a treasure map. Without it, the book wouldn't be half as fun as you wouldn't have a clear reference of the compents of the painting. I referred to the dust jacket many times for clarification of what each clue really looked like.

I love books with art-themes, so I was excited when I found out that this book was about following the clues in a painting. And it didn't let me down. The plot is exciting, with a couple of really appealing people (an art dealer and a young woman who owns the painting) trying to solve the riddle, and a really bad guy who is also trying to solve it for his own evil ends! The author clearly knows his stuff (he's written some non-fiction, too, about the art market), and the information about 16th-century painting is fascinating. And it's really cool that the book includes an insert of the "Landscape of Lies" painting itself, so readers can "play along at home."

"Landscape of Lies" is Peter Watson`s best novel. The reader learns a lot about Fine Arts and East Anglia. It`s a real cliff hanger with neverending twists and an unpredictable ending. I read it several times, it`s one of my favorite books and I recommend it to everybody. It`s a shame, that the real good books(like this one and for instance Laird Koenig`s "The little Girl who lives down the Lane") are very soon out of print. There are so many boring books that you can still buy after 10 years...why not this one?

I was not familiar with this title but noticed it was a new Felony & Mayhem reprint, which means it's supposed to be a good quality but overlooked mystery. I thought I'd give it a try and just loved it. Great depictions of the English countryside and an intriguing mystery - but you do very much need the dust jacket depiction of the painting to follow the story. The book reminded me very much of the Iain Pears' mysteries.

I stumbled across this book by chance in an s/h bookshop and from the opening scene (in which a woman wakes up to the sound of a burglar downstairs) I was hooked. In the ensuing action, in which it's determined that a medieval painting is actually an allegorical, riddling treasure map to a monastery's long-lost loot, Watson manages the difficult feat of mixing an intricate plot and large amounts of history/mythology with very well-drawn characters. The learning's worn lightly, there's a considerable amount of humour, and the suspense provided by the other man on the trail of the treasure will have you racked with tension (though I recommend you resist temptation and *don't* turn to the back of the book to find out the ending ;-) ) You'll be tempted to, given that the villain of the piece casts such a long shadow that the reader loathes him with a passion long before he actually appears in the flesh... Like the previous reviewer, I can't understand why this wasn't a best-seller on its first release. Let's hope it gets re-issued and meets with a public already appreciative of such historical mysteries as Iain Pears' "An Instance of the Fingerpost".

One of my favorite books of all time, it's amazing this bookwas not a bestseller! The cover is a medieval painting, is intrinsicto the story: a painting is discovered which turns out to be a medieval treasure map. Racing against rivals, the characters must unravel the secrets and medieval symbolism in the painting in order to find the treasure first. A first rate mix of mystery, history, suspense, research and intellect, this is an amazing book for anyone with an interest in medieval history, art, archaeology, or just fantastic books with unique, interesting story lines.

I bought Landscape of Lies more than ten years ago and still pull it out to read or to lend to friends. You have to be a bit interested in research and church history to find that side of the story exciting. If you are more used to action stories, then this type of book would seem slow. But I found the whole concept brilliant! I was intrigued to follow the search for the treasure and learned a great many things. The fact that you needed to view the painting as a map, and that it should be followed backwards, was a great surprise to me. It is just one of those books which stay in your mind, like Katherine Neville's The Eight, also a book with some history and searching for treasure. Try it. You might be surprised.

I read more than 3.000 books in my life, but Peter Watson's "Landscape of Lies" (and also "A Peculiar Chemistry" by Kitty Ray, "Three Women at the Water's Edge" by Nancy Thayer, "Woodswoman" by Anne LaBastille, "Dancing at the Harvest Moon" by K. C. McKinnon, "In a Dry Season" by Peter Robinson, "Spencerville" by Nelson DeMille, "Plum Island" by Nelson DeMille and "The little Girl who lives down the Lane" by Laird Koenig) belong to the 10 best books I've ever read and which I would bring to a deserted island.

It's a fascinating treasure hunt which leads through some of the most beautiful areas of England (check a map while reading) and I always wanted to travel exactly the way the two characters travel and see all these places. Some are fictitious, most are really existing places.

This book is a TREASURE!

10 stars!!!

Landscape of Lies is one of the best-crafted thrillers I've read in many years. The characters, however, are among the most exasperating I've ever encountered.

Michael Whiting, the art dealer-cum-detective, has a persistent and irritating habit of inserting 'bloody' between syllables of adjectives, as in 'inbloodycredible,' 'fanbloodytastic,' and the like...and Watson has the inbloodycredible cheek to have Isobel, the plucky girl heroine, begin doing the same thing!!

The dialogue is contrived and sophomoric. Pick up a $1.08 used copy from an Amazon seller. This one's not a keeper.

Too cute, clever, annoying emphasis on the cigar smoking habit of the male detective. Story did not seem authentic. I read about half and then quit...looked at the end and sure enough, it ends with more whining about the cigar smoking! Such a shame. Seemed like it could have been a good book.