Street of the Five Moons

by Elizabeth Peters Book 2 in the Vicky Bliss Mysteries series.

First published 1978

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4.3(1,037)

A dead man is found carrying a near-perfect copy of the Charlemagne talisman and a note written in hieroglyphs. Vicky Bliss recognises that the workmanship could expose a sophisticated forgery operation and follows the trail from her museum in Munich to the antique shops and private collections of Rome.

Her investigation brings her into conflict—and attraction—with the elusive English art thief John Smythe. As Vicky searches for the master craftsman behind the reproduction, she must decide whether Smythe is helping her, manipulating her or competing for the same objects while the people directing the forgery ring remove anyone who can identify them.

The forgery scheme depends on a sophisticated antiquities market in which provenance, expert opinion and wealthy collectors can create value almost as effectively as age. Vicky’s knowledge of art history lets her recognise technical brilliance, but following the object’s modern trail requires her to understand dealers and intermediaries whose reputations may be part of the fraud itself.