Suzanne Ruthven

The Devil's Door Suzanne Ruthven

The Hugo Braithwaite Mysteries are set in the shadowy world of antiques and fine art, where villains rub shoulders with millionaires in grand country houses and seedy back streets. Hugo Braithwaite is an antiques dealer and acknowledged authority on British watercolours, a talent which often throws him into the limelight of popular television to help sate the public's thirst for discovering valuable family heirlooms and treasures in the attic. On the down side, it is also a murky realm of fakes, forgeries, felony ... and the occasional murder.

The first book in the series, The Devil's Door, concerns the theft of a secret hoard of church silver and the brutal murder of the local vicar. As a result, and through no fault of his own, Hugo becomes embroiled in a sinister web of intrigue involving the wife of a former international art thief who, for no apparent reason, wishes to destroy his reputation.

The somnolent market town of Lower Cholmeley is about to become a hot-bed of stolen antiques, valuable paintings and Underworld villainy that is a long way from the genteel antiques television programmes in which Hugo Braithwaite often takes part. Using his brother's newly authenticated Stubbs as bait, he manages to thwart the thieves and emerge with his reputation intact.