Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0099470705, Paperback)

Winner of the CWA Creasey award for Best First Mystery of 1977 Lovejoy has a strictly thieves’ code of honor, he does repulsive things to food, and he’s a brute to his (many) girlfriends. But what he doesn’t know about antiques isn’t worth knowing, which has earned him a certain grudging respect among the grifters and antique-dealers of East Anglia. And it could earn him a glorious, wallet-fattening commission. A mysterious collector with money to burn wants Lovejoy to find the notorious “Judas pair,” a matched set of flintlock dueling pistols. They were made in the 18th century, the last of a scant handful of sets crafted by a brilliantly talented artisan. They were most recently used to murder the collector’s brother. As Lovejoy sees it, there is only one small problem: The legendary Judas pair never actually existed. Oh, and one other problem: The Judas pair may be strictly imaginary, mythical, an antique collector's version of the Philosopher’s Stone. But despite all that, someone is willing to kill to prevent Lovejoy from finding them. The 1st Lovejoy mystery