Rating: 
Summary: Mystery Steeped in History
Review: While I was not a fan of Iain Pears' most popular work "The Instance of Fingerposts" I still enjoyed this earlier work "The Raphael Affair". This was not your average mystery - it was also a lesson in art history which I thought was excellent.I gave this book three stars because I thought the mystery part of this book was lacking a bit while the premise and the characters were much more in depth. The reader is first introduced to the Italian detective, General Bottando, and his assistant, Flavia di Stefano as they are called on the scene to investigate a supposed break-in at a local church. While talking to the vagrant we discover that Jonathan Argyll is not who we are lead to believe. He is in fact an art historian from England who is in pursuit of the holy grail of the art world - an undiscovered Raphael hidden behind the work of a lesser Italian artist Mantini. While learning about the history of Italian art we discover how it affects each character in the book - we watch as Flavia and Argyll begin to learn from one another and go in search of the real Raphael. Amazingly enough, the reader can't help but be intrigued and to absorb some knowledge along the way as Flavia and Argyll put their reputations and their lives on the line for a woman who has been dead for a few hundred years. I think this book is more interesting for the lessons learned than the actual mystery itself. I will certainly pick up another of Pears' Art History Mysteries as I did really enjoy 'The Raphael Affair' and I have grown to like to characters in it.
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