A Masterpiece of Revenge

By J.J. Fiechter

From the author of comes a wickedly ingenious psychological thriller involving a priceless painting and a murderous plot to use it for revenge. Gripping from first page to last, A MASTERPIECE OF REVENGE is a classic Hitchcockian thriller that will keep the reader guessing every step of the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcade
• Release date: Jan 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781611459869

J.J. Fiechter

J. J. Fiechter was born to a Swiss family in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1927. He worked for many years as an historian, writing books on a wide range of subjects from the French Revolution to Egyptology. In 1994, he won France’s Grand Prize for Detective Fiction for Death by Publication, also published by Arcade.

Book preview

Part I

Charles

1

Looking back now on that September morning, it is clear to me I should have heeded the omens. But you must understand, I was not one of those people who lived life bracing for disaster, straining to read dire warnings and grim portents in ordinary things. I am not a superstitious man. Walking under ladders never fazed me. If the wind blew I didn’t automatically assume some storm was rising. In short, Cassandra was not a prophetess to whom I paid particular homage. Perhaps I should have.

Anyway, the first sign came while I was heading into my kitchen to make morning coffee. A painting — it happened to be a portrait of a man by Guillaumin hanging in my hallway— had fallen off the wall. How very, very odd, I thought. Some credulous creatures might have leapt to the conclusion that this signified something ominous. Not me. I was merely irritated, nothing more.

While setting up the pieces on the chessboard — on which, every morning, I tinker with the Tartakover Strategy — I noticed that one of the pieces was missing. A bishop. A thorough search turned it up. It had somehow fallen from its perch and rolled under the table. Again, some credulous people might ascribe deep significance to this. To the superstitious, the bishop represents dark, deep forces: a master over pawns but himself a pawn of greater