HUNG OVER

An 11th adventure for Tim Simpson (A Deceptive Appearance, 1992, etc.), art-investment advisor to White's Bank in London, who is once again embroiled in chicanery and murder. White's is considering the purchase of the Crockingham Collectionpainting and sculpture largely devoted to horsefleshfrom the financially strapped Carberry family: Sir Andrew, sons Philip and James, and daughter Elizabeth Dennison. Tim treks to Suffolk to view the collection, meets its devoted curator Frank Hobart, but is not impressed. The bank decides to buy anyway. Then there's more bad news, delivered by Tim's old friend, Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector ``Nobby'' Roberts. Antiques dealer Ted Murphy, a casual but well-liked acquaintance, has been shot to death, leaving behind a message from Tim on his answering machine and two albums of pornographic snapshots of Ted, with various partners, in the living quarters over his shop. Tim's involvement deepens when (1) Elizabeth Dennison is murdered at her house in Cambridge, (2) a bomb is discovered under Tim's car, and (3) he matches a pair of faces from Ted's photo collection with women close to the Carberrys. He eventually uncovers the full scope of the Murphy- Carberry connection, but not in time to prevent another killing. A lot of Wodehouse-like chatter and a surfeit of lore on the works of Stubbs, Munnings, and Orpen. Slow-paced, talky, and a bit precious, even for the art-oriented.