On first looking into Simpson's Homer,
one finds that this intelligent, well-plotted story is the 13th in the series (Into the Vortex, etc.) to feature art historian and amateur detective Tim Simpson and his wife, Sue; therefore, the Homer is likely to be the 19th-century American artist, Winslow Homer. Jeremy White, Tim's superior at White's, an international investment bank in London, sends Tim to Italy to see whether Jeremy's uncle and Tim's friend and mentor, Sir Richard White, has really "gone off his rocker." Sir Richard has been sending messages advocating the bank's support of a tourism project involving Oliver Cromwell and the Waldensians, an early Protestant sect in an Alpine valley now part of Italy. Tim learns Sir Richard's reasons for these messages just before the older man's death, apparently of a heart attack. Sir Richard's contacts in Turin and Paris also die suddenly, and an attempt is made to kill Tim, who decides all the deaths are murders. Meanwhile, Tim is named executor of a friend's estate, so he and Sue visit the friend's aunt in Northumberland, where in the last few pages they make a most satisfying discovery. Sue, who works at the Tate, furnishes some fascinating art history concerning Homer's activities in northern England, while Tim's dialogues with Jeremy bristle with esoteric information about Brillat-Savarin (The Physiology of Taste) and the history of the Waldensian sect. In addition, Malcolm presents a fine portrayal of one of the vilest female scoundrels in the literature of modern banking. (Apr.)
FYI:Malcolm is a former chairman of the British Crime Writers Association.
