Landscape of Lies »

Isobel Sadler is dead broke. The only thing she's got that might bring in any money is a stupendously bad painting that's been in her family for generations. It's so ugly she can't imagine it would be worth much, but the other night someone tried to steal it. Mystified, she turns to art dealer Michael Whiting, who identifies the painting as a 16th-centurytreasure map, pointing the way to a cache of priceless religious artifacts that were hidden by monks when Henry VIII was dissolving the monasteries. If they can decipher the clues in the painting, Whiting reasons, Isobel's money troubles will be history. Whiting, however, isn't the only one who has figured out the painting's true identity. He and Isobel struggle to decode its arcane instructions-laced with references to everything from classical mythology to the Bible to Botticelli.-but a rival is one step ahead, and he'll stop at nothing-not even murder-to get his hands on the medieval treasure.

Publishers Weekly

When someone tries to steal a medieval painting long owned by her family, Isobel Sadler turns for help to London art gallery owner Michael Whiting. She is amazed to learn that the picture, titled Landscape of Lies , is a ``puzzle map'' whose nine male figures each symbolize priceless silver relics that were squirreled away by monks when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Isobel and Michael--who, naturally, fall in love--set out to find the treasure, but an obsessed academic who will stop at nothing, not even murder, stays a few steps ahead of them. Watson, who proved himself a master of the art-world thriller in The Caravaggio Conspiracy , has turned out an amiable entertainment that is more a self-indulgent exercise than a suspense novel. The path to the silver is strewn with red herrings and arcane clues involving Botticelli, the Bible, horticulture, classical lore and medieval iconography. (Jan.)