The Cohen family live in Austria at the time of its annexation by the Nazis. It's a time of despair and terror. Wealthy and Jewish, they face both financial ruin and imprisonment if they don't form a plan. In an underhanded move, they agree to hand over their extensive and much prized art collection in return for a free passage to neutral Switzerland. Underhanded because the paintings are actually fakes, painted by Anna Cohen's talented boyfriend...

Some seventy-five years later, one of the original Gauguin's Tahitian Princess, is discovered in an old lock up in Tuscany. This presents a real problem for the art dealer who had knowingly sold the fake to a Ukrainian businessman of ill repute; particularly as his painting was now very much on display at an Impressionist exhibition. What can he do about that?

Insurance investigator Roger Kirtley is present when the exhibited painting is stolen. His suspicions are raised when he notes another purported theft of the Tahitian Princess in separate location but within days of the first. Joining forces with his Italian colleague Pina, they set about investigating further. Unfortunately, this investigation is not welcomed by any involved and soon attempts are made to silence both Roger and Pina. Having previously been paralysed in an accident and now confined to a wheelchair, Roger recognises that they're extremely vulnerable if they continue to investigate blind. If they have any hope of surviving this, they'll have to follow the clues to drag the culprits into the light - before he and Pina are confined to the permanent dark.

Books by Paul Paxton