Lovejoy is one of those scamps who always seems to be able to inveigle his way into the hearts and hearths of attractive women, and then lives off their generosity while he pursues he passion for antiques. In many of the Lovejoy novels, you get the sense that Lovejoy is in a superior position versus the women.

In The Lies of Fair Ladies, there's no question that the women have the upper hand. Plots pile upon plots as fair ladies seek vengeance against other fair ladies -- some for this generation's actions while others go back in time for their revenge.

Lovejoy becomes an unwitting (and sometimes happy) pawn in these plots as he goes on about his business of running Lovejoy Antiques, avoiding marriage with the wife of a local radio personality and solving the murder of his friend, Prammie Joe. As usual, Lovejoy also spends a fair amount of time keeping the police (he calls them, the plod) from sending him to jail for fiddles (his word for illegal activities) that others have done that look like Lovejoy's work.

If you haven't read a Lovejoy novel before, Lovejoy has two talents relating to antiques that are unusual -- he can tell the real thing from a fake by a feeling he gets when he is near the real thing, and he can make a great fake of anything that will fool most buyers of antiques.

From the humorous choice of a last name to the suprise ending, you'll laugh and delight in this irresistible tale of revenge, complicated by one of the funniest battles of the sexes ever. The language and plot are equally delightful!

This is my favorite in the Lovejoy series, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I have read this book to my children and they loved the pop up pictures. This story tells of how a pig once had a long nose and how it came about that he now has a short nose. This story hold the interest of children of all ages. I also used this story with my special education class. It held their attention and provided us with a great activity to make. We made paper plate pigs who had pop up noses. Everyone I shared this book with enjoyed the story about a different pig. I highly recommend it.

One of the most beautiful books and poetic books I've seen for children. Found it at the library and had to get it for my 2 year old. It always does its magic for her at bedtime and quiets her down. Highly recommended.

This book was the best book I ever read. I recomond this book to starting readers.

I could tell that Chi-Lou, my daughter, was very interested in this!! We had taught her many thing about Buddha, but she learn it best when it was tell to her in story like this book! Even I liked this children book. Great for kid, and great for spirituality. I highly recomend book!

This is a great book for toddlers with emerging sitting still skills. The words are simple and go quickly on each for little fingers to turn quickly. It also teaches some basic color skills. Both of my kids have enjoyed this book to no end.

The author had the rare ability to write a mystery with genuine jeopardy and suspense and do it all with tongue in cheek. The title alone should demonstrate the latter. In other novels, Mr. Latimer's private detective gets himself committed to a private insane asylum to protect a client. In another work, a wealthy man on death row, five days from electrocution, decides he wants to live and hires a private detective to prove the innocence of the condemned man.

The subject novel opens with a scholarly professor arriving at a remote Michigan mansion at night during a storm. He is there at the invitation of his wealthy great-uncle, as are numerous other relatives, presumably to learn about their inheritances. Quite soon the great-uncle is found dead in his study. His head is--well--missing--along with his new will. Everyone assumes the murderer is an escaped lunatic who killed his family by decapitation. The reader knows better.

The plot is funny and ingenious, a trademark of this writer's works. The Great Depression era atmosphere is fine. The characters are somewhat standard, except for the narrator, i.e., the scholarly professor whose area of expertise is the English Restoration.

This work is highly recommended for fans of the golden age crime novel. In fact, read all of Latimer's early works. He went a little sappy later, even writing Perry Mason episodes for TV and scripts for "Topper" movies.

One of my favorites in the Lovejoy series. As one of the series' earlier books, it lacks the frantic pace the author employs in the last five or six--much more care is taken with the details. There's a bit of everything here--a few harrowing escapes; a qurky thin and tall Irishmen with an equally quirky vehicle; his beautiful cousin who makes all the right moves; the usual scam by money-hungry pursuers and producers of false antiquities; and in the middle-of-it-all, the wise, and contradictorally naive but worldly Lovejoy, the man who understands what's important and oblivious to what is not.

Dashiell Hammett did the "lone man against a corrupt, evil, violent town" scenario first in the great classic RED HARVEST, but I'm not sure he did it better than Latimer did in this hard boiled noir story that was so hot that the unexpurgated version couldn't be published in the US for almost 40 years. Lone wolf PI Karl Craven comes to town to finish a job and revenge the death of his partner. Along the way there's a lot of steamy sex and gratuitous violence. Hard to believe this was written in the 40's. It certainly reads like a modern day thriller in lots of ways.

Hammett and Chandler and Latimer and the rest of the detective story writers of the pulp era basically brought the western and mythological motifs of the lone warrior/wanderer defying tremendous odds and assorted enemies to the urban and rural streets of America in the 1920's and 30's and did it so well that it has never been surpassed. Some modern day writers are in the same league, such as Pelecanos, Crumley (at his best), Crais, etc. but none do it better. Fans of Latimer who have only read his screwball comedy mysteries about drunken PI Bill Crane will quite surprised by this tough story, which is probably one of the 10 best hard boiled tales of all time.

A definite 5 stars, would be a 6 if I could.