Death of an Old Master: A Murder Mystery Featuring Lord Francis Powerscourt (Hardcover)

by David Dickinson (Author) "William Alaric Piper walked happily through his art gallery in London's Old Bond Street..." (more)
Key Phrases: cricket flannels, eighty thousand pounds, senior curator, Lady Lucy, Christopher Montague, Johnny Fitzgerald (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Ah, those gullible new American millionaires of the late 19th century. After first enriching themselves through railroad development, the shipping trade, or other robber-baron enterprises, many sought to manifest their sophistication by purchasing great European works of art. "I suspect we may be at the very beginning of the biggest buying spree in history," remarks one cultural connoisseur in David Dickinson's Death of an Old Master. "For the dealers, the opportunities are huge." And there were still greater profits to be made by purveyors of counterfeit masterpieces, as is made clear in this smartly plotted third mystery (after Goodnight, Sweet Prince and Death and the Jubilee) featuring Lord Francis Powerscourt, a former army intelligence officer who’s now "one of the foremost investigators in Britain."

Powerscourt's interest in the 1899 slaying of leading art critic Christopher Montague--garroted in his London flat with a piano wire--is simple enough: the dead man was one of his wife Lucy's myriad relatives. But this is no simple homicide. For one thing, all of Montague's papers have disappeared. These include an article he was writing about forged or faked Renaissance paintings--some of which are hanging at the prestigious de Courcy and Piper Gallery. It's a neat little business that partners William Alaric Piper and Edmund de Courcy have been running: With the help of a talented--and captive--young artist named Orlando Blane, they duplicate existing Old Masters, or create new ones in identical style, for sale to foreigners. So was Montague killed to prevent his revealing this epidemic fraudulence? Or was the critic's demise the tragic outcome of his affair with a married woman, whose husband is now missing? Following the garroting of Montague's closest friend, and with a likely innocent man awaiting trial for these murders, Dickinson's aristocratic sleuth begins a chase after answers that will lead him from the Mediterranean island of Corsica to London's hallowed National Gallery and a disheveled dynastic mansion on the Norfolk seacoast.

Dickinson, a former BBC-TV editor, stuffs Death of an Old Master with knowledge about the Victorian art world, yet avoids didactic stuffiness. His focus here is instead on wit, rompish adventure, and a cast memorable for its quirky diversity. Although readers may be hard-pressed to identify the killer in advance, the courtroom resolution to Dickinson's mystery boasts something that's lacking from most of the artistic efforts in this tale: genuineness. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly
In Dickinson's third well-paced Victorian mystery (after 2003's Death and the Jubilee), devoted family man Lord Francis Powerscourt investigates the murder of a distant relative, art historian Christopher Montague, found garroted in his London flat. Suspects abound, from both the victim's personal and professional life. Powerscourt soon learns that Montague was having an affair with the wife of an older man who vanishes right after the body's discovery. The murderer's theft of all the scholar's papers suggests that their rumored contents, which would disclose a sophisticated and extensive forged-art ring, motivated the killer. The aristocrat is his usual quick study as he infiltrates the world of the dealers peddling the work of the Old Masters, and he uses his network of sources, including his wife, to find proof of the frauds targeting American nouveaux riches. After a second murder by strangulation, the noose appears to tighten around the cuckold, whose trial in classic Perry Mason fashion becomes the vehicle for the disclosure of the truth with a plausible fair-play solution that will satisfy traditional mystery fans. Dickinson nicely blends action and dogged sleuthing, and his husband-wife pair of detectives is both more personable and believable than similar Victorian duos created by Anne Perry and Robin Paige. This neatly plotted effort should gain him wider notice and the larger readership he deserves.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (February 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786713062
• ISBN-13: 978-0786713066
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,001,888 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, Intriguing, Highly Readable, April 3, 2005

By	Hilary Miller (KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the third installment in the Lord Powerscourt series, which I've been reading in order, and it's definitely my favourite so far. I don't know how accurately the art market of the 1890s is portrayed, but Dickinson describes it wittily and seemingly knowledgably. I found myself becoming just as interested in how the conniving gallery owner was able to jack up prices and foist his forgeries on unsuspecting and gullible American millionaires as I was in discovering the murderer of the art historian who was about to expose these schemes. The courtroom drama at the end of the book was also dramatic, with witty observations and asides that made it most entertaining. Finally, in addition to the fascinating historical touches and the intriguing sub-plots (in particular, the pathetic story of the young forgerer who loses the woman he loves and is forced to produce his masterful forgeries against his will), this is a good mystery story. There are plenty of suspects with means and motive, and my guess is that most readers will be wondering "whodunit" for about as long as I did (figured it out a few chapters ahead of the revelation).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice historical mystery, July 6, 2004

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Victoria still reigns, the Boors are making ugly war on the British Empire in southern Africa, and American millionaires are flocking to Europe to pick up culture--including the old masters. One enterprising art dealer specializes in serving the needs of the Americans--whether this means locating great art, or creating it on demand. It's all very civilized in a way, and even similar to the way that many British manors were stuffed with ersatz 'old masters' from centuries of trips to the continent. But the murder of an art critic throws the entire business into turmoil.

Investigator Lord Francis Powerscourt interveins when his wife reminds him that the victim is something of a cousin (Powerscourt believes that half of English society is a cousin of some sort to his wife). The case looks clearcut--the dead man had been having an affair with a married woman whose husband had recently learned of the affair and was not happy about it. But Powerscourt doesn't trust any case that looks too obvious and he finds other motives--motives involving money and great art.

Author David Dickinson writes convincingly of English 'society' near the end of the 19th century. British nobles are finding their ancestral homes to be expensive monstrosities that they still must maintain, manners remain critical, and a woman can be ruined by scandal--but both men and women still seek out adventure in their lives. Powerscourt is a well developed and sympathetic character--often lost in the case but never too busy to make time for his wife (and occasional co-investigator) and children. Dickinson doesn't look beneath the upper crust of English society, but even that upper crust is pretty rotten.

Dickinson throws out a number of red herings, sends Powerscourt through England and even to Corsica, and gives the reader enough interest in art and art forgery to make for a fascinating read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder in the art world, March 4, 2009

By	L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Death of an Old Master (Lord Francis Powerscourt Mystery) (Hardcover)

First Sentence: The old man walked slowly across the fields.

When art critic Christopher Montague is found garroted, enquiry agent Lord Francis Powerscourt, is asked to investigate. Powerscourt finds that the critic had been having an affair with a married woman. The husband, Mr. Buckley, is the obvious suspect and is arrested.

Powerscourt is not convinced Montague was working on a book to expose the gallery of de Courcy and Piper of selling fake old masters. If he's right, it will discredit the gallery and all the other appraisers who have claimed the work to be genuine. The gallery has a lot at stake selling expensive painting to wealthy American industrial millionaires. With plenty of motives and possible suspects, Powerscourt must find the truth before Buckley is convicted.

With each book, I become a bigger fan. Dickinson does everything right.

There are great characters, each of whom is fully developed. Powerscourt isn't stuffy, but a family man in love with his wife and children. He is well-placed in society, but also ex-military and highly-regarded by those in power. But all the characters are wonderful; Charles Augustus Pugh, the barrister defending Buckley; Orlando Blaine, the artist; Johnny Fitzgerald, Powerscourt friend; Lady Lucy, Powerscourt's wife, and her battalion of relatives, and all the others. They are all fully developed and alive. I was amused at the American millionaire industrialists being portrayed at uncultured rubes, which they may well have been.

The sense of time and place is wonderful. When the characters travel, you travel with them. When they are freezing in the snow, you reach for a blanket. The courtroom scenes were fascinating as was the look inside the world of art and galleries. The suspense was excellent all the way to the end.

I very much enjoy that each book can stand on it's own but there is a segue at the end that makes me want to read immediately for the next book but doesn't make me feel I'm being tricked into it.

This was a wonderful book in a series I shall definitely continue.