Landscape of Lies (An Art Mystery)

377 pp. Full-color foldout inside. Isobel Sadler is dead broke, and the only thing left that might bring in any money is a stupendously bad painting that's been in her family for generations It's so ugly she can't imagine it would be worth much... until someone tries to steal it. Mystified, she turns for advice to art dealer Michael Whiting, who identifies the painting as a 16th-century treasure map, pointing the way to a cache of priceless religious artifacts that were hidden by monks when Henry VIII was dissolving the monasteries. If he and Isobel can decipher the clues in the painting, Whiting reasons, her money troubles will be history. But if they can't decode the painting quickly, Whiting and Isobel could be history themselves. Even as they struggle to translate the arcane instructions--laced with references to everything from the Bible to Boticelli--a rival is dogging their trail, and he'll stop at nothing, not even murder, to get his hands on the medieval gold.