# 17 The Sin Within Her Smile (©1993)
Genre: Mystery
Location: England
In The Sin within Her Smile (1993) Lovejoy is sold as a "slave for a day" at a charity auction, a position villagers assume is a humorous guise for sexual hanky-panky but which proves in addition a serious bondage in which Lovejoy is expected to help divvy Romano-Celtic gold artifacts. The divvying is part of a major scheme to revive ancient Roman gold mines in Wales. Furthermore, Lovejoy is commandeered to assist on a fund-raising mental-health caravan, an excursion for kleptomaniacs, nudists, murderers, philanderers, senile oldsters, and an infant. Of his situation Lovejoy jokes, "Suddenly it's like I'm watching a kabuki play blindfold with commentary in lost Tasmanian." The wagon loads of "loonies" begin to seem far saner than the greedy "good" citizens who use them and mock them. There are discursive lectures on gold, silver, diamonds, and Wales--its language, customs, history, and antiques. Ultimately, Lovejoy makes sure the murderers get their comeuppance, the indigent along the journey benefit from his expertise and softheartedness, various possessive women are foiled, and a sympathetic American colonel is inspired to cut from the Welsh mountains and transport to the United States a new Stonehenge to teach Americans about Wales.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 276: British Mystery and Thriller Writers Since 1960. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Gina Macdonald, Nicholls State University. Gale Group, 2003. pp. 160-174.
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