THE VERY LAST GAMBADO

A letdown after the wry and witty Jade Woman, this fifth escapade for art ""divvie"" Lovejoy is chiefly notable as a love letter to the British Museum, whose every nook and cranny is described with relish. Here, Lovejoy is hired by a production company filming a movie about a robbery at the Museum. Lovejoy's assignment: to tell them what should be stolen, and how ought it to be done. But as the supposedly fake scenario coincides more and more with real events--including the murder of an antiques forger and the disappearance of a curio dealer--Lovejoy begins to realize that it's a setup, and he's the victim, scheduled actually to die during a film take. How he outwits the dimwits, and even manages to confound the Museum's very able security staff, hinges on a neat touch of authorial misdirection but, in true Lovejoy fashion, hardly ends with the dastardly charmer on top--now he's clearly at the mercy of his dazzlingly prim assistant Lydia, who's determined to rehabilitate him. Gash, who has promised to provide a Lovejoy glossary, could use one here; the slang is sometimes impenetrable. Still, this reminds, you-of-Topkapi does have that one great attribute: the British Museum. That's always worth a visit.