Art History Mystery

In an exchange of favors with an art dealer colleague, Jonathan Argyll unluckily offers to transport a painting from Paris back to Rome. It seems routine work, and Jonathan gets to meet his girlfriend, Flavia, who works for Rome's Art Theft Squad. But when a would-be thief tries to take the painting at the train station, and the art dealer seems less interested in his purchase once he sees it, Jonathan wonders why, as events unfold, someone is willing to kill for it.

When Jonathan Argyll is arrested for breaking into an obscure church in Rome, he claims that it contains a long-lost Raphael hidden under a painting by Mantini. The painting disappears - then reappears in the hands of the top British art dealer, Edward Byrnes. How has Byrnes found out about the hidden masterpiece, and whom is he acting for? There is also the curious matter of the safe deposit box full of sketches closely resembling features of the newly discovered painting.

After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science, and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today.

Narrated by Jennifer Jason Leigh Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of fiction — at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal — is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award- winning film. RICK DALTON – Once he had his own TV series, but now...

No matter how fabulously he’s being courted, infamously dour “art hog” Arthur Wordell isn’t keen on favoring the new Guggenheim Museum with his extensive collection. Even at the urging of his beloved daughter, Nadia. Then, the night after the museum’s fête, Arthur takes a 20-story plunge from the window of his Times Square office. Nadia thinks it’s no mere coincidence. Eccentric, yes. Suicidal, no. Private Investigator Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, agree.

“Dark, twisty and full of characters you’ll love to hate, The Nanny is the perfect read for a chilly winter’s night.” — Ruth Ware, New York Times Bestselling Author “The Nanny kept me in white-knuckled suspense until the very last page. Gilly Macmillan’s breakout thriller...

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend. Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South.

Told in emails, text messages, and essays, this unputdownable mystery follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry, from the internationally bestselling “new queen of crime” (Electric Literature) Janice Hallett. Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings...

In the first major history of crime fiction in 50 years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the 18th century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world’s most popular form of fiction.

“A royal treat….Welcome back, Vicky Bliss!...For readers new to Vicky’s sassy and distinctively smart stories, The Laughter of Dead Kings will mark the start of a beautiful friendship.” —Tampa Tribune New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters—author of the thrilling...

In this rich journey through sacred art, author Derek Rotty accompanies listeners through the mysteries of salvation history, highlighting some of the Church’s most moving and celebrated works of visual art. He embraces the concept of visio divina, in which contemplation of sacred art becomes a prayer in much the same way as lectio divina makes a prayer out of Scripture reading. The Church has always known that images possess the power to communicate truths in a special way.

Vicky Bliss is a Doctor of Art History who happens to be statuesque and beautiful. But her job at the National Museum in Munich is not enough to keep this intrepid academician entertained. It takes the thrill of an ancient mystery or dangerous romantic adventure to keep Vicky on her toes.

The cave of Lascaux may be closed to the public, but five scholars a day are allowed inside, and Nora Barnes has finagled an appointment. True, she may have fudged a bit in her letter to the authorities, but she does teach art history, and she isn’t about to miss her chance to see the world’s most famous prehistoric paintings. Nora and her high-spirited husband, Toby, are visiting the Dordogne, in the southern French region of the Aquitaine. Aware that the Dordogne’s renown for cave art is matched only by its reputation for delicious cuisine, the couple has also signed up for a cooking class at a nearby château.

NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author...

The Louvre is more than the world’s largest art museum. It is a fortress, a palace, a treasure house of revolutions, and a stage for mysteries that continue to fascinate millions. To step inside its echoing halls is to journey through nearly a thousand years of history—where monarchs once schemed, artists found inspiration, and the world’s most famous masterpieces found their home. In Masterpieces and Mysteries, architectural historian Caspar Dene takes you far beyond the crowds gathered at the Mona Lisa.

Millions of words of scholarship have been expended on the world's most famous author and his work. And yet a critical part of the puzzle, Shakespeare's library, is a mystery. For four centuries people have searched for it: in mansions, palaces, and libraries; in riverbeds, sheep pens, and partridge coops; and in the corridors of the mind. Yet no trace of the Bard's manuscripts, books, or letters has ever been found.

George Lamming—one of the Caribbean’s most powerful literary voices—reimagines the age of European exploration to expose the deep scars of conquest, which Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, perennial contender for the Nobel Prize, calls “one of the great political novels in modern ‘colonial’...

M. C. Armstrong secured his embed as a journalist with the Navy SEALs in 2008. Shortly before he left for Iraq, his father asked him to tell the story no one else seemed to be telling. The story of the people sometimes constructed as our friends, and other times, our enemies: the Iraqis.

Borobudur in Central Java has been described as the eighth wonder of the world. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple, built out of 1.6 million blocks of worked volcanic stone and containing three miles of relief carvings and 504 statues of Buddha. Yet for 1,000 years it lay deserted in the jungle until it was rediscovered by none other than the famous Englishman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lords of Finance, a magnificent and timely reckoning with the first truly global financial calamity and the famous banking family at the center of the whirlwind Over the course of the 1850s and 1860s, during the first era of globalization, the...