Hanky-Panky on the international art scene is the source of the hilarity
and fizz in Peter Mayle's new novel. He flies us back to the south of
France (a region some readers of his irresistible best-sellers believe
him to have invented), on a wild chase through galleries, homes of
prominent collectors, and wickedly delectable restaurants. There are
stopovers in the Bahamas and England, and in New York, where that
glossiest of magazines, Decorating Quarterly, reflects the cutting-edge
trendiness of its editor, Camilla Jameson Porter. (Camilla has recently
broken new ground in the world of power lunches by booking two tables on
the same day, and shuttling between them, at the city's trendiest
restaurant.). It is Camilla who has sent our hero, Andre Kelly, to Cap
Ferrat to take glamorous photographs of the houses and treasures of the
rich, famous, and fatuous. He happens to have his camera at the ready
when he spots a Cezanne being loaded onto a plumber's truck near the
home of an absent collector. Odd, thinks Andre. And in no time he's on
the trail of a state-of-the-art art scam, chasing Cezanne. It's a joy to
follow him and the crowds intent on speeding or foiling his quest -
including a beautiful agent; a super-savvy art dealer attracted to the
finer things in life, especially if they promise the payoff of a
lifetime; an awesome Dutch forger; some outstandingly greedy New York
sophisticates; and, invisible in the background, the parade of
remarkable chefs whose mouthwatering culinary masterpieces periodically
soothe the hero and tantalize the reader of Chasing Cezanne.
