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Rating: 
Summary: Pace, pace, pace
Review: Jonathan Gash, Pearlhanger (Penguin, 1985)Mysteries are like horse races. What pace you get depends more on the country of origin than the type of book. Pearlhanger, the ninth Lovejoy mystery, tries its best to be a hardboiled detective story in the Robert Parker vein (with Lovejoy an antiques dealer instead of a literate chef), but it's foiled by Gash's inveterate Englishness. English mysteries always start out leisurely and then pick up. Not the best way for a hardboiled detective story to start off. Still, once you're past the slow bits, like most English mysteries, Pearlhanger gets good. The irascible, pejudiced, inveterately Lovejoy and his band of merry misfits are on the trail of a disappeared antiques dealer who doesn't seem to be doing much antique dealing. Once they reach the end of the trail, things pick up and plot twists abound. Unfortunately, reaching the trail takes half the book and a bunch of minor characters (all of whom, you hope, will pop up again later, but they never do except in conversation). The whole thing does come to a satisfactory conclusion, and with a bit faster pacing at first and a little more completeness with minor characters, it would be excellent. As is stands, it's readable enough. ** 1/2
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly Out Of His Element
Review: Lovejoy is hired by Donna Vernon to find her wandering husband Sidney who is on a buying trip with Ken Chatto, another antiques dealer. Sidney leaves a well-marked trail and shows a surprising ignorance about antiques. The story ends in a marshy wilderness where Lovejoy is slightly out of his element. His element is actually antiques which he loves with an exclusive passion not easily understood by even his friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Masterful Lovejoy Read
Review: Perhaps too many minor characters show up in this, the ninth Lovejoy mystery, thus, this probably should not be the first Lovejoy to read. The fascinating world of antiques is once again very capably used as a backdrop to a tale of murder and suspense. This book really hits its stride in the last twenty pages. Go, Lovejoy!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: This is a wonderful Lovejoy story! For one we see Lovejoy in his element of sussing out antiques all throughout his own beloved East Anglia. No foreign shores in this story. For another we get lots of wonderful information about pearls (how they're made, how they're graded, and most importatantly of all, how to fake them - its' a Lovejoy after all). There are a lot of characters in this little book, and unless you've been faithfully reading like I have, you might get confused. I suggest that you read these stories in order. It helps when you're trying to decipher characters, and anyway, they are just so good. Lovejoy is a marvel, and loveable even though he's a first-class rogue.
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