Murder rarely occurs in luxury London art galleries. Theft, perhaps, but not murder. So it's a shock when gallery owner Willie Morton is stabbed to death with a paperknife, and it's strange that only two items are missing: two early twentieth-century paintings of relatively little value.

Who would kill Willie for a "Camden Town Murder" painting by Sickert and a painting called A Back Room in Somers Town by Sickert's little-known pupil Mary Godwin?

To art expert and investment advisor Tim Simpson the murder doesn't make sense. Tim had seen Willie shortly before his death and everything had seemed fine. The paintings had been consigned by a foreign client who owned a large collection and wanted to sell quietly, away from the eyes of the tax man; nothing too unusual in that. If the owner had changed his mind, why not simply cancel the sale?

When Tim's employer, Jeremy White of the White's Bank family, sends Tim to Brazil to investigate the Bank's Brazilian cosmetic and perfume business, Tim little suspects that São Paulo holds the secrets of long-ago Camden Town. But he does sense that some of the people he meets in Brazil may want to hide the truth about both perfume and paintings.

Beautifully written, rich with the special flavor of Brazil and intriguing insights into the international art world, A Back Room in Somers Town marks the debut of a delightful new crime fiction series.