Paint, Gold and Blood

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Revision as of 16:42, 12 September 2020 by imported>Hayford Peirce (→‎Plot: added a couple of words)
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Michael Gilbert on the back cover of Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, 1982
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Paint, Gold and Blood is a 1989 suspense novel by the British mystery and thriller writer Michael Gilbert, published in England by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Harper & Row. It was Gilbert's 25th novel and....

Plot

Unusual for a Gilbert novel, it is difficult to immediately discern its direction. It begins along typical Gilbert lines with its youthful protagonist, Peter Dolamore, on a bicycle trip along the north coast of France during the spring break at his boarding school in England. Perfectly bilingual in both French and English as a result of having lived with his French mother in Paris for his first 11 years. He has just spent a uncomfortable few days at the château of a wealthy Englishman who has a vineyard and an extensive art collection in the Médoc area of Bordeaux—the Englishman is the uncle of an attractive girl who is a close friend of Peter's at his boarding school and has suggested Peter's visit. Returning by bicycle to Dieppe, to catch his return ferry to England, he is nearly murdered by two Iranian art thieves in an ancient church who are engaged in stealing a valuable triptych from a tomb behind which he is hidden in the dark. With the aid a girl at the hotel in which he has just passed the night and of brother, a French police detective, he is driven to Dieppe and returns to England without further incident.

Reception and/or Appraisal

The New York Times and Kirkus Reviews had very different appraisals of it:

The New York Times: [1]

Kirkus Reviews: .[2]

  1. The New York Times, June 21, 1970: [1]
  2. Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1970: [2]