A thrilling art-heist escapade that evokes a world of European high culture and luxury, while plumbing the vicissitudes of less exalted human foibles and obsessions

Johann Friedrich von Allmen, a bon vivant of dandified refinement, has exhausted his family fortune. Forced to downscale, Allmen inhabits the garden house of his former Zurich estate, attended by his Guatemalan butler, Carlos. When not reading novels by Balzac and Somerset Maugham, he plays jazz on a Bechstein baby grand.

Allmen's fortunes take a sharp turn when he meets Jojo, a stunning blonde whose lakeside villa contains five art nouveau bowls created by renowned French artist Émile Gallé and decorated with a dragonfly motif. Allmen, seeking to pay off mounting debts, absconds with the priceless bowls and embarks on a high-risk, potentially violent bid to cash them in.

This is the first book in a series of humorous, fast-paced detective novels devoted to Allmen—a memorable gentleman-thief who, with his trusted sidekick Carlos, creates an investigative firm to recover missing precious objects.