The letter arrived at Tim Simpson's Park Lane office on a bright morning in early June. It was handwritten in a scratchy female script and bore an address in Meudon, a suburb of Paris. It offered a hitherto unknown representation by Rodin of the painter Gwen John. If genuine, it would be a real coup for the Art Investment Fund of White's Bank, of which fund Tim was now head.

Before the day was out it represented a considerable personal coup for Tim also, for the chairman of White's requested him to find a piece of sculpture with British connections to adorn the headquarters of a new company in which White's was to be heavily involved.

And then the troubles began.

ForTim, they included the unwelcome discovery that someone else was in pursuit of the coveted Rodin - someone who would stop at nothing, not even murder, to acquire it. For White's, they included the alarming realization that their chairman was hell bent on involving them in a dubious investment, to the risks of which he appeared wilfully blind.

As the unsuspected connection between art and business emerges, and the action shuttles from London to Paris to the Dordogne, Tim makes an even more unwelcome discovery: his own life is at stake.