THE TITIAN COMMITTEE

Flavia di Stefano, junior investigator for the Polizia Art Squad of Rome, has been sent to Venice to assist (actually, to inoffensively not assist) the local carabinieri looking into the murder of American art historian Louise Masterson; Jonathan Argyll, the gawky British dealer's representative Flavia arrested in The Raphael Affair (1992), has come to Venice to negotiate for a mediocre painting with the Marchesa di Mulino, who suddenly turns skittish. The two cases cross with the news that Masterson's committee to authenticate all known works of Titian had run aground on serious disagreements (how serious? Two more committee members will soon be found dead) and that Masterson herself had developed a mysterious interest in the canvas Jonathan was trying to buy—part of the inheritance of the Marchesa's nephew Dr. Lorenzo, another member of the ill-starred Titian committee. As before, literate and cultivated, with a 20's (1520's) cast, and a particularly clever historical analogy saved for dessert.