An audio book.
1950s. Rosy Gilchrist has been sent to Venice by her boss at the British Museum, Dr Stanley, to find a book of Horace translations annotated by Bodger. While she's there she discovers that an eccentric has offered $1 million for it, and a vase goes with it. Oxford (a descendent of Bodger) want it too. They send Edward Jones (24, from a good family but short of money) to look for it. He has a sister Lucia who lives in Venice. She knows Professor Cedric Dillworthy and Felix Smythe (a florist) who are in Venice to look after Felix's cousin's dog Caruso. Bill Hewson, an American painter is there, and Carlo Ricardo - once in an English PoW camp.
A bookseller is killed. Edward is found struggling in a canal. Bill jumps in to save him, in vain. Cedric thinks that Bill's efforts look more like trying to drown than save. Lucia, Edward's sister, isn't too upset - he'd always been a pain. Rosy thinks she's found the book but it's identied as a fake. The vase has been seen at Bill's studio. An unsent letter to Bill from Edward is found, which looks like a blackmail threat.
Felix and Guy are tied up. Bill threatens Rosy. Bill is the baddy, The bookseller had helped make a fake. Guy and Felix save her. Guy and Bill die. Felix disposes of the bodies using a gondola. There's a paragraph where Rosy recalls the episode as an 80 year old in a care home - strange. There's a funeral, and Rosy gets the book in the end for nothing.
Too many of the characters come straight from a farce cast. I'd like some of the characters to feel something. And I'd like more of the atmosphere of Venice to come through, not just some details.
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- Radmila May ()
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