The Final Faberge: An Inspector Jack Oxby Novel

by Thomas Swan

Overview

Rumor has it that a mysterious Fabergé Egg disappeared in the days just before the Russian Revolution. It's up to Scotland Yard art crime detective Jack Oxby to solve the mystery and find the infamous art treasure. Trouble is, whoever attempts to find the Fabergé Egg turns up dead. No matter for Oxby, the fearless hero of Thomas Swan's two previous art crime thrillers, The Da Vinci Deception and The Cezanne Chase. The Final Fabergé is a page-turning novel of suspense that fans of the British television series Lovejoy, the art history mysteries of Iain Pears, and the classic film The Thomas Crowne Affair, will thoroughly enjoy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557049698
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/27/2012
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 5.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Thomas Swan chose art crime and thievery as the backdrop for his three highly praised thrillers featuring Inspector Jack Oxby: The Da Vinci Deception, The Cézanne Chase, and The Final Faberge. Swan was director of the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and past president of its New York chapter. His novels have all been Book of the Month Club selections and been translated into French, German, Greek, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Editorial Reviews

The excitement of the story is bound to send first-time readers of Thomas Swan in search of his previous books.” — Sunday Star-Ledger

“Swan spins a taut tale...in a neat blend of art and crime.” — San Antonio Express-News

From the Publisher

Swan spins a taut tale...in a neat blend of art and crime.

San Antonio Express-News

The excitement of the story is bound to send first-time readers of Thomas Swan in search of his previous books.

Sunday Star-Ledger

Scotland Yard's art-crimes specialist Jack Oxby's globe-trotting quest for a legendary Fabergé egg leads to a pack of homicidal Russians scheming to smuggle biological weapons. Oxby's third outing (The Da Vinci Deception, 1998, etc.) begins in 1916, with the mad monk Rasputin examining a bejeweled, intricately constructed egg that's come from the master jeweler to the Russian court, Peter Carl Fabergé. Before Rasputin can deliver the egg to Queen Alexandra, however, Prince Yusopov murders him and the egg is stolen by a plucky servant. Several years and many dastardly deeds go by as this priceless object seems to bring calamity and death to numerous owners—until Michael Carson, the émigré son of one of them who now owns a chain of car dealerships, learns from Sasha Akimov, a crony of Carson's missing father Vasily Karsalov, that Karsalov was cheated out of the egg long ago in a poker game by the vile (but preposterously timid) Oleg Deraybin, an ex-KGB thug now head of a Russian crime syndicate that dreams of hiding biological weapons in American cars to be shipped to terrorists around the world. Before Carson can ask where the egg is, Akimov is cut down by sexy female assassin Galina Lysenko, who, with her husband Viktor, are being paid by Deryabin to make sure Deryabin's automobile importing agreement with Carson goes through. Meanwhile, in Europe, Inspector Oxby takes a leave of absence to hunt down the egg for collector Christopher "Kip" Forbes, son of Malcolm. More corpses pile up after Oxby flies to St. Petersburg to enlist the help of an old museum-director friend. Eventually, Oxby's touristic traipse through Russia leads him to Karsalov—and,finally, to New York, where Deryabin has marked Oxby for death. Unconvincing and labored, even when the charming Oxby is on the scene, though with plenty of fun facts about Fabergé, Russian architecture, and New Jersey auto export lots.

Kirkus Reviews