Treasure in Roubles

Description

To steal a painting from the Hermitage museum in Leningrad is going to take planning, nerve and ingenuity - and that's how Sergey Vasilefski does the job, unaided. But there's no way he'll be able to get the painting out of Russia alone...The police come to suspect that members of the Baroque Circle - a cultural group on a visit from England - are implicated in the theft, and their suspicions deepen when a Circle member is brutally murdered during the interval at the Kirov Opera House. The President of the Circle is horrified - and so is her husband, merchant banker Mark Treasure, who suddenly finds himself in the most beautiful of Russian cities with a pressing need to uncover a murderer.The investigating authorities are hot on Treasure's heels and he must work with pace and intelligence to protect his fellow travelers, even if that means teaming up with the greatest cynic in the KGB.Executed with David Williams' trademark verve and wit, Treasure in Roubles showcases the eponymous banker sleuth at his finest.

Stuart David Williams was a writer best known for his crime series featuring the banker Mark Treasure and police inspector DI Parry. After serving as a Naval officer in the Second World War, Williams completed a History degree at St John's College, Oxford, before embarking on a career in advertising. He became a full-time fiction writer in 1978. Williams wrote twenty-three novels, seventeen of which were part of the Mark Treasure series of whodunits, which began with Unholy Writ (1976). His experience in both the Anglican Church and the advertising world informed and inspired his work throughout his career. Two of Williams' books were shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, and in 1988 he was elected to the Detection Club.

Another well-crafted mystery * Publisher's Weekly *