Customer Reviews

The Lies of Fair Ladies: A Lovejoy Mystery

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This is another winner in the Lovejoy series. In this one Lovejoy is totally in a "Women's world", and even the bad person in this one is a woman. The biggest problem that Lovejoy has is that he can't figure out who is the bad and who is the good, and he gets all confused when dealing with women anyway. I recommend this series highly, but this book is not a good place to begin to read the Lovejoy series. As usual there are a lot of characters and it's hard to keep them all sraight, even if you're a repeat reader. I recomend beginning at the beginning of the series, and working your way through. The books are wonderful, and you'll find you get as addicted to them as me. In this one we again learn a lot about the world of antiques and the world of faking antiques. We also get a first-hand look at what a "dollop broker" does. Boy these are good stories!

Lovejoy is one of those scamps who always seems to be able to inveigle his way into the hearts and hearths of attractive women, and then lives off their generosity while he pursues he passion for antiques. In many of the Lovejoy novels, you get the sense that Lovejoy is in a superior position versus the women.

In The Lies of Fair Ladies, there's no question that the women have the upper hand. Plots pile upon plots as fair ladies seek vengeance against other fair ladies -- some for this generation's actions while others go back in time for their revenge.

Lovejoy becomes an unwitting (and sometimes happy) pawn in these plots as he goes on about his business of running Lovejoy Antiques, avoiding marriage with the wife of a local radio personality and solving the murder of his friend, Prammie Joe. As usual, Lovejoy also spends a fair amount of time keeping the police (he calls them, the plod) from sending him to jail for fiddles (his word for illegal activities) that others have done that look like Lovejoy's work.

If you haven't read a Lovejoy novel before, Lovejoy has two talents relating to antiques that are unusual -- he can tell the real thing from a fake by a feeling he gets when he is near the real thing, and he can make a great fake of anything that will fool most buyers of antiques.

From the humorous choice of a last name to the suprise ending, you'll laugh and delight in this irresistible tale of revenge, complicated by one of the funniest battles of the sexes ever. The language and plot are equally delightful!

This is my favorite in the Lovejoy series, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.