Penny Royal

The news hit the papers ... Dr Bruno Fenlinghetti, esteemed Italian archaeologist and director of Rome's Instituto Ferlinghetti, had disappeared from his home near Naples. A pair of priceless statuettes had also vanished. You didn't have to be Perry Mason to realise that the doctor and the statuettes were thought to be travelling together.

Dear forgetful Bruno - disorganised, thoughtless, but never, Penny knew, never dishonest. Bruno, was incorruptible; he didn't mess with drink or drugs or boys, and if he developed a vice he had the Ferlinghetti fortune to indulge it. The exquisitely tuned reasoning of Penny Wanawake sensed it had to be kidnapping or worse. Six feet of slender, sophisticated, immoral, uninhibited sleuth took the first flight to Rome...