Join Will Bentley, artistic, charming and single, on an unexpected journey into the world of investigative crime. Will is an oil painter and a bit of a rogue, with a history of forgery and incarceration for his deeds. The beautiful Lucy Wrackham – an insurance investigator – knocks at his door and persuades him to hunt for an old friend and fellow forger. In an unlikely alliance, they become embroiled in solving a high-profile theft, and discover an underworld of desperate villains that will do anything to evade conviction. Will has no experience in this world and for a while he is losing, but he is stubborn and determined. As the first story, Stealing Venus, unfolds, it gathers pace and you’ll miss the characters when the last page is turned. Along the way, different classical paintings will be examined in depth, as well as painting technique. If you are interested in art, you will identify with these stories.

In the second novel, Painting Venus, Will is trying to return to his life as an artist in Cambridge, when Alessa Cooper, a doctorial student, meets with him to discuss Botticelli and his muse. This story is different in that every alternate chapter steps back six hundred years to the late 15th century. There we meet Botticelli, the Italian Renaissance painter, and get to know him as he paints masterpieces including the Birth of Venus, Primavera, and Venus and Mars. Once more, the meticulous attention to detail concerning these classical paintings is unsurpassed. Meanwhile in today’s world, Will and Alessa pursue a mystery surrounding Botticelli’s muse, at last uncovering an extraordinary secret. You will meet Medici lords and have a ringside seat on the life of Botticelli. You’ll visit Florence, both as it was in Botticelli’s time and as it is today. You’ll visit Mantua, the small city-state which was the domain of Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua. If you enjoy romances, there are two of them in this story, so slip into the past and be thrilled by the present.