Ejected from Thekla Paumann's fashion show, peerless antiques divvy Lovejoy knows he's in trouble. Thekla has been paying all his bills and soon utilities and even food will vanish. Invited to dinner at the town's eatery by the enticing but insane, Faye, she promptly lands him in it with the local constabulary. Worse: Lovejoy has acquired a double, a rival divvy who beats him to the punch on every priceless antique, and his fake Norwich School Painting won't even sell in Norwich. Tinker's cousin's girl is missing Lovejoy has to find her and expose a donty - insider trading at an auction, (expression coined by one Lovejoy, 1992, ). No one is innocent in antiques is his only conclusion, as he flees North to get the antique that will stave off his creditors. Then his second dictum Never go back comes into play as, following a path of murder and attempted murder (his own), he is once more in the childhood streets of his memory. Brief fame follows as he conducts an auction, finds the girl and cracks the case. Throw in the infamous Berkley horse flagellation frame, enough fake prehistoric to construct a respectable Neanderthal family and you have a irresistable romp through the magical world of antiques with the most roguish dealer of them all.