Landscape of Lies

 Peter Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is basically a story about a painting that is really a map to a treasure trove of medieval artifacts of great value. It was fun to read except for the plethora of esoteric facts which sometimes buried the plot,and the very annoying expression that was used on almost every page which included the word bloody inserted into a variety of exclamations. Fanbloodytastic, Isobloodybel and others  became tedious quickly. The cigar smoking subplot was also not a welcome addition.

 The best part of the story was the fact that the painting was included in the book so that the clues could be followed by the reader. There was also some gems of information about  the symbolism of certain objects in paintings which added depth to the book. The most important thing was that the plot and the characters as well as the treasure hunt seemed credible even after all the centuries had passed,

I  learned  quite a bit and refreshed my memory about a lot more so over all it was a positive experience.