Iain Pears

A novel on the way we interpret events to suit our purpose. The protagonists are four people giving evidence in a murder in 17th century England. One blames the crime on too much authority, another on the lack of it. A look at the controversies of the day, from medical experiments to religious freethinking.

In 1960s Oxford, Professor Henry Lytten is attempting to write a fantasy novel that forgoes the magic of his predecessors, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. He finds an unlikely confidante in his quick-witted, inquisitive young neighbor Rosie. One day, while chasing Lytten's cat, Rosie encounters a doorway in his cellar. She steps through and finds herself in an idyllic, pastoral land where Storytellers are revered above all others. There she meets a...

"United by a classical text called "The Dream of Scipio," three men struggle to find refuge for their hearts and minds from the madness that surrounds them in the final days of the Roman Empire, in the grim years of the Black Death, and in the direst hours of World War II."--

Detective Flavia di Stefano of Rome's art theft squad joins forces with art historian Jonathan Argyll to investigate the theft of a simple icon of the Blessed Virgin. The object turns out to be worth far more than anyone thought.

British art dealer Jonathan Argyll teams up with Flavia di Stefano of Rome's art theft police to track a stolen painting by the Italian master Uccello. Suspected is Giotto, a master thief said to have stolen some two dozen masterpieces.