A French Finish

In Robert Ross's first mystery, Lewis Tewkesbury, a retired Harvard art historian and professor emeritus with too little to fill his days, lets himself be talked into an outlandish scheme. What follows is a twisting caper that turns on the craft of art forgery and draws on the professor's deep knowledge of art history, with a cast of colorful characters, a good deal of humor and a touch of romance along the way. Ross, who worked as a creative director at the Leo Burnett advertising agency before turning to fiction, won the 1978 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author with the book.