Laura Gascoigne – Carol's Notebook

Author: Laura Gascoigne

Currently living in Hampstead, North London, Laura Gascoigne has worked as an art journalist for over twenty years, editing Artists & Illustrators (1994-1999) before going freelance. Laura was born in Cairo in 1950, the daughter of a bookseller and an Italian teacher, and grew up in Brussels and Cambridge before studying Classics at Oxford University. Her sister is the writer Marina Warner. Surrounded as a child by the paintings her father collected, she has always had a passion for art and when not writing about it, she paints.

I admit I love a little art thrown in with my crime. I couldn't pass up this story with its combo of art, fraud, kidnapping, and even murder. I actually enjoyed this one. It took a little while to sort everything out, but it was a fun read. I've got an excerpt to give you a taste. Read an excerpt from The Horse's Arse: The story so far: Daniel Colvin, a junior reporter on the art newspaper Marquette, has uncovered evidence of a dodgy deal between the international art dealer Bernard Orlovsky and the UK’s State Gallery, but just as his revelations are going to press he is knocked off his bike by a hit-and-run driver. Back home from hospital with a leg in plaster, he finds his flat has been raided. DC Yasmin Desai from the Met’s Art & Antiques Squad had warned him Orlovsky was dangerous, but he hadn’t listened… Daniel knew there was something wrong from the light, or the absence...