Near Death in Venice, Jonathan Biggins

This is now the second art based caper novel I've read recently, and as you'd expect from an author with the background of Jonathan Biggins (well known actor, singer, writer, radio host, comedian, dare I say satirist), there is much in NEAR DEATH IN VENICE that is highly comedic, and very stagey. In a good way if you're a bit of a fan of rambling, slightly daft plot scenarios that go from vaguely silly, to engagingly twisty and back again for the entirety of a novel.

Built around central character Tristan Barclay, an art historian and minor TV celebrity (for a lot of wrong reasons ... I mean Antiques Roadshow, hanky panky in the bushes, seems almost sacrilegious!), most recently Tristan has been a tour leader for Belvedere Tours, a fine arts and culture tour group that is owned / run by the son of the founder, one of those chinless wonder types who for reasons that Tristan cannot begin to fathom (nor one suspects can the aforementioned chinless wonder who seems to have gotten himself a millennial staff member who has "ideas") has decided that Tristan is now on his grand final tour.

Only Tristan decides that a final Grand Tour needs a Grand Gesture, one that centres around the nasty habit in the art world of separating triptychs and the like for material gain. A gesture he also firmly believes is less theft and more an act of artistic recovery, one that in the planning seemed somewhat straight forward, that turns out to be anything but. Just as well his final tour group is made up of a bunch of elderly fans of his - groupies if you will - who are more than willing to step in and assist, and after all, what art heist doesn't go better with a mobility scooter involved.

Including a great cast of mildly eccentric elderly's, a potential romance with a twist, and an ex-cop / art theft investigator sort of person lurking around in the background the scenario in NEAR DEATH IN VENICE may be just enough to tip some people into the realm of potential guided tour participants. Although you'd want an iron clad promise that it's going to be more weird heist, and less having to put up with total bores on a bus (or luxury riverboat) for days on end.

Announced as the first in "The Old Masters Series", there's something rather compelling about how somebody bordering on daft as a brush like Tristan comes across, when they have enough sense to surround themselves with can do people, and graciously concede ground. A tour guide who comes up with the itinerary and allows his group to go off piste at will, if you like. And I did like, once I got used to the slightly silly idea behind the whole thing, and the chatty manner of the telling of the tale, and the fact that I seem to be identifying a lot with elderly people willing to behave quite badly nowadays.