Hand of the Lion

JACKET NOTES:  Venice--La Serenissima--does not live up to its billing as "The Most Serene of Cities" for Andrea Perkins, an expert in art restoration on leave from a Boston museum, when she is hired by the Committee for the Preservation of Venetian Art. Instead, she finds herself involved in a spectacular art theft, a daring kidnapping--and murder--in the romantic setting of crumbling palaces and languorous gondolas along the Grand Canal. The object of the intricately planned theft is an ancient Egyptian bronze sculpture that had been stored for centuries in the depths of St. Mark's Basilica.
Andrea unwittingly becomes the pivotal player in a dramatic scenario which includes among its other characters:
Georges Tropard-a French art thief with an international clientele.
Kyle Hagen-an American tour guide and former television child prodigy privileged information he intends to trade for cash.
Mario Costantino-the Italian director of the Committee for the Preservation of Venetian Art who guards long-held professional and personal secrets.
Connie Gilbert-a wealthy American widow; an expatriate with a fondness for French Impressionist paintings, most of which have been acquired for her by Georges Tropard.
Mary Louise-Connie Gilbert's granddaughter with wisdom far beyond her six years.
And, Aldo Balzani-a handsome American ex-football player who traded his uniform for a chief of detectives' badge in Florence.
The action begins in Alexandria, Egypt, during the first century and concludes in Snow Summit, California, in the present with stops along the way in Paris, Pisa, Florence, and Venice.
(© Dodd, Mead & Company)