A Legal Fiction (1964) a.k.a. The Decaying Gentlewoman by Elizabeth Ferrars

A Legal Fiction (1964) a.k.a. The Decaying Gentlewoman by Elizabeth Ferrars

Softcover.

Book has not been read but in a used 2nd hand condition.

Synopsis:

When they were children together they had derisively called the painting the Decayed Gentlewoman. Later the memory of it remained vivid, a childhood recollection. The picture itself had meanwhile disappeared, an event to which no one attached any special importance. But the Decayed Gentlewoman re-entered their grown-up lives with a bang. The manner of its reappearance sparked a train of suspicion about the true nature of past events, sharply confronting young Dr. Colin Lockie with the questions: Who could be trusted? Could he even trust the girl he had known and played with when they were children? Unless the Decayed Gentlewoman was a great deal more valuable than anyone had ever supposed, what was all the fuss about? The painting is the cause of a murder, and also of research into a question of ownership, made bizarre and intricate by an archaic law. The pronouncements of various solicitors on this question provide a kind of humorous, light accompaniment to a very gripping and unusual narrative.