Ellery Lloyd

In Cambridge, two final year students are guided in their dissertation by an eccentric supervisor and they start to uncover details of a lost Surrealist masterpiece. The artist (and her picture) vanished after a Parisian fire but the students discover the painting hidden in the house owned by her estranged family. A curse seems to follow the family, related to egyptology, and fifty years later the last member of the family is found murdered.
Just writing a precis of the book makes it sound completely preposterous and in a way it is. The plot has so much thrown at the wall, it really shouldn't work - but it does. Three timelines weave throughout the narrative, the characters are actually quite well put together and plot is addictive.… (more)

“Lots of things in the world are only lost because no one has bothered to look for them”

I am not an art connoisseur by any means of the phrase, however, “Self-Portrait as a Sphinx” was described so often and so beautifully I want nothing more than to see it and own a print of it. It’s a darn shame that there wasn’t a picture of it on the front or back cover or somewhere in the book. I need to see it!

Beyond that - this book was incredible. The plot, the characters, the history, all of it. Loved it all.… (more)