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It's summer in the Lake District and former jewel thief Peter Fox's antique shop is going into its busy season. Grace Hollister, the American teacher and student of the Romantic poets, is going through some boxes that have come from an estate Peter has just bought. They are going through every page of every book when a strange letter falls out of one of them. It seems to be from the 1940s and refers to an unknown poem. The poem appears to be something called 'Sate the Sphinx', and from various references in the letter, Grace believes that it is a missing sonnet by the romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. A large man, who speaks with an accent so thick as to be nearly incomprehensible, enters the shop and sends Grace away. She hides out in a wardrobe and listens to the conversation between Peter and the strange person. It turns out that when Peter had been an active jewel thief, he stole some items from Topkapi, the Turkish museum. He was imprisoned, but he bribed one of the guards to let him go. The guard has now come for his reward. And, to top it all off, the person who bought the farmhouse from which the papers came wants the original material back. He offers the current contents of the farmhouse in exchange. Peter accedes to his request, exchanging the boxes of papers and the primitive furniture for high-quality Japanese antiques. All are happy until the Turk is found murdered. As in the other two books in this series, VERSE OF THE VAMPYRE and HIGH RHYMES AND MISDEMEANORS, everything comes out all right in the end for Grace and Peter. Or does it? If you like traditional British mysteries, this series is a fun one to read. The books are light and fast-moving, and Peter's background is always a mystery.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, October 2006
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