Iain Pears

It's England in the 1660s, Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Oliver Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious …

From the author of the international best seller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Arcadia is an astonishing work of imagination. Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers. But who controls the future—or the past? In 1960s Oxford, Professor Henry Lytten is attempting to write a fantasy novel that forgoes …

Someone's planning to raid an ancient monastery in Rome. But why? And when? Enter art expert Jonathan Argyll..."Pears exhibits quite a masterful touch at suspenseful storytelling."-Chicago Tribune "Simultaneously witty and instructive."-Publishers Weekly

Following a clue provided by a dying woman's confession, General Bottando of Rome's Art Theft Squad sets off on a world-wide search for the man he calls Giotto, whom he believes is responsible for a series of major heists."

Witty art-history mystery from the author of the best-selling literary masterpiece, An Instance of the Fingerpost. British art historian Jonathan Argyll has just sold a minor Titian to an American museum for a highly inflated price. But as he complacently awaits his cheque in the Californian sunshine, trouble erupts: …

In The Dream of Scipio, "Pears's finest book yet" (The Boston Globe), the acclaimed author of An Instance of the Fingerpost intertwines three intellectual mysteries, three love storiesand three of the darkest moments in human history. United by a classical text called "The Dream of Scipio," three men struggle to find …

Hired to deliver a painting from a Parisian art dealer to a client in Rome, British art historian and amateur sleuth Jonathan Argyll suddenly finds himself caught up in a double murder and begins a probe that uncovers a secret hidden since World War II. Reprint.

When English art historian Jonathan Argyll is caught breaking into a church in Rome, he has an astonishing story to tell. He claims that the church contains a genuine Raphael, hidden under another painting. Further investigation reveals that the painting has disappeared...to reappear later in the hands of top English …