Moonspender: A Lovejoy Novel

by Jonathan Gash

Book Overview

Lovejoy doesn't mind an occasional take, but the wholesale theft of national treasures is something else. So when "moonspenders"--antiques poachers with hi-tech metal detectors--start digging up his native East Anglia's ancient treasures, Lovejoy takes a stand. Martin's.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140106464
• ISBN13: 9780140106466
• Release Date: February 1988
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Rascal

That consummate rascal, Lovejoy is up to his tricks again, producing fake bronzes, collecting writs against him and making love to half the female population of East Anglia. Moonspenders is the name given by the antiques trade to unscrupulous dealers who go on to other peoples properties by night, to locate buried metal antiquities with a metal detector, so when a friend of Lovejoy is found murdered in a field, supposedly gored by a bull, the picture just doesn't make sense to Lovejoy who starts to piece together his own scenario. Throw in a coven of witches, a very rich batty collector, a greedy land developer AND local thugs with murderous intent, and you have another typical Lovejoy adventure, light, amusing and with enough bits about the antique trade to make it more palatable. It's not the best in the series but a good, quick read.

Time for another romp with Lovejoy.

Lovejoy is so much fun and each book is a little gem in its own right. In this one we have weddings, writs, murder and of course antiques. You may think - "A typical Lovejoy romp.". Yes, it is that, but this book is such a lot of fun! It's Lovejoy himself who makes these stories so readable. He is totally irresistable with his thieve's code of honour and his incessent womanizing. He's a scalawag, but such an adorable one. The books are set to a very frenetic pace, and sometimes it's hard to keep up whilst deciphering the English slang "doorarling", but oh, it's worth it! In this book we learn about Moonspenders. These are the people that go out at night with their metal detectors looking for old antiques. And you can bet they don't tell the antiquities people what they find. This book is set in Lovejoy's own East Anglia, and it's not very far from his cottage where all the action occurs. If you haven't read this series, you are missing something, let me tell you.

Fakes, Scams and Goofy Characters

Lovejoy appears on a television show as an expert on antiques. As a result, he is offerred a job by Ben Cox, director of a Suffolk archaeology trust who is worried about the county being robbed of its treasures, especially ancient bronzes buried in the ground. After Cox and local collector George Prentiss are both murdered, Lovejoy sets out to find the killer and solve the mystery of the missing buried treasures. There are two big entertainments in a Lovejoy novel. The reader learns a lot about antiques, with an emphasis on the fakes and scams, and also meets some great characters. The downside of all this is that the plot tends to get buried beneath the goofy characters and their many antics.

Antiques,intrigue,beautiful women,typical Lovejoy.Delightful

Lovejoy, minds not, creating a beautiful work of art. He has even been know to make an occasional fake or two. However the wholesaling, of rare, national treasures goes against his true love, antiques. Here one finds a gangster, antiques-poachers with electronic gadgets, a TV maiden, a precious Victorian wedding, a little witchcraft, and a few dead friends thrown in. Lovejoy is up to his old tricks of taking on the world , with his loyal barker Tinker, and bevy of beautiful women who cannot resist his charms. Havoc abounds with murderous intrigue, and it is up to Lovejoy to make order of chaos. Done in true fashion,he succeeds.Typically delightful