Jack Clementi, reading the newspaper, learns that there is an imitation of the precious Etruscan goldsmith’s masterpiece ‘The laughing girl’. The article says that the piece belongs to the Houston Museum to which the deceased Texan billionaire and collector Jim Carlson donated it. But Jack knows that the precious statuette belongs to the feudal lords of Roccaferro who have kept it for two hundred years in the castles museum, with an insurance guaranty from Lloyd’s for 800,000 sterling pounds.
The renowned Insurance International Co. has created an enquiry network, headed by detective Jack Clementi, to defend itself against insurance fraud. Jack has saved the company enormous amounts of money throughout his successful investigations and his bosses are more than willing put up with his brusque manners, his disconcerting frankness, and his intolerance for any form of company bureaucracy. Yet he is a big guy with a huge heart.
