The Tartan Sell

The English antique expert Lovejoy tells of his latest escapades in Gash's 10th novel. The fun and frights are nonstop from the moment the foxy dealer scarpers from home in East Anglia to Scotland. He's evading police who have questions about a dead lorry driver and his missing cargo, a bureau which had been sent to Lovejoy by Shona McGunn of a little Scottish town. Shona takes Lovejoy to Tachnadray, crumbling manor house of the clan McGunn, gutted by the late laird, a spendthrift. Posing as Ian McGunn, a helpful kinsman, the dealer proposes a money-making scam to Elaine, the laird's crippled daughter, who is firmly in charge of the dwindling family on the estate. While Lovejoy makes his canny plans for a grand felonious coup, he's in constant danger of dying at the hands of thieves who had killed the lorry driver, and other lurking enemies among the McGunns. The perils, however, don't interfere with his amorous affairs whenever a willing woman catches his libidinous eye. The mystery involving a prisoner at Tachnadray is the final surprise in the lusty entertainment starring the picaresque hero, who will be featured in a BBC-TV series. (May 19)