I discovered the books on Lovejoy a long time ago, did find a few in my local 2nd hand bookstore and found I rather liked them. Not unlike my likes for a tv show like "Bargain Hunt"and the "Antique roadshow". That said I did return to the books again when I saw the episodes of Lovejoy with Ian McShane once again on the telly and he indeed did capture the spirit of Lovejoy the antiques dealer. While the tv series is far more tame than the books when it comes to death and mayhem.The book has actually been filmed and while the tv episode makes sense, the book is far more exciting. Lovejoy being a bigger bungling fool that manages to catch the bad guys is a differnt ending from the book as do the female characters in the Gash version. Lovejoy has a far easier morale when it comes to the ladies than any tv show could ever get away with. It does make Lovejoy such a rogueish character that operates not in a black/white universe but his dealings are far more greyish (far more that 50 shades I would say). The fun about the Gash books is the knowledge he shares about antiques and live in the corner of world being inhabited by Lovejoy and his freinds and foes.The Lovejoy series are not detectives they are more thrillerish with a different kind of leading character that gets involved in crime due to his involvement in the world of Antiques. And Lovejoy has got one great skill, he can sense real antiques from duds. That makes him valuable for certain parties. Lovejoy has got one great asset he has certain standards he lives up to and loves antiques. When he is mad at someone they better be aware of his wrath since it might be their undoing.In this novel Lovejoy gets involved in a series of thefts, he seems to be the one to notice the excistance of the serial robbery and due to the fact that they kill a friend he gets involved out of revenge, for the money and the love of antiques.
