Paint, Gold and Blood

(CC) Photo: Jerry Bauer
Michael Gilbert on the back cover of Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens, 1982

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Paint, Gold and Blood is a 1989 suspense novel by the British mystery and thriller writer Michael Gilbert, published in England by Hodder and Stoughton and in the United States by Harper & Row. It was Gilbert's 25th novel and....

Plot

Unlike many of Gilbert's novels, which have plots within plots and apparently disparate themes that eventually merge together, The Family Tomb is a straightforward suspense story involving only members of the British colony in Florence, a wealthy Etruscan professor who excavates and sells ancient art objects, Italian police and judiciary officials, assorted politicians and lawyers, sympathetic Italian working-class people, and two sinister Mafia figures.

Reception and/or Appraisal

The New York Times and Kirkus Reviews had very different appraisals of it:

The New York Times:

Kirkus Reviews: .