PAID AND LOVING EYES

Larcenous, lecherous Lovejoy, in his 16th escapade, beds seven women—with predictable complications—but his most serious trouble arises from the one who got away, his ex-wife Cissie, now married to Paul and dallying with Troude, and, as is her wont, sternly doing her best to make trillions out of Lovejoy's talent as a divvy (diviner of real antiques). The scheme she's part of was two years in the planning, skips from East Anglia to Paris to Zurich, caused the death of two men, the pummeling of another, depended on child- slaves cranking out antiques in sweatshops, and drew the attention of the Stolen Art and Purloined Antiques Squad—and, of course, centered on the compliance of Lovejoy, who was duped into thinking he was keeping a solemn promise to her when he took part in Troude's major insurance company swindle/repository fire/antique- buying jaunt. At scheme's end, Lovejoy is as broke as ever and, as usual, has his eye out for a spiffy new bird to cavort with. Despairing readers will search in vain for a glossary and a coherent storyline. Still, the erudite Gash offers up entertaining nuggets for both history and antiques buffs.