"I am in my prime, if you know what I mean, of average height, unfortunately above-average weight, and my features interestingly show how dazzlingly handsome I used to be. I like art and money and crude jokes and alcohol. I am very successful. During my studies at a fairly decent second-rate boarding school, I discovered that anyone can win a fight if they are prepared to poke their opponent in the eye," characterizes himself at the beginning of his extraordinary story the unabashed art dealer, debauched aristocrat, snob, and eccentric Charlie Mortdecai, the hero of the difficult-to-categorize cult work by Kyril Bonfiglioli, loved by his fans for its unique combination of cynical humor, plots straight out of the boldest parody of the tough school, and excesses of all kinds. The first in the series of Mortdecai's adventures, revolving around the theft of a Goya canvas from Madrid's Prado and a blackmail scandal involving the dealer's American client Milton Krampf, gradually leads Charlie and his violent servant Jock from the calm of London into increasingly bizarre and dangerous twists of the entire case, while the number of victims and strange individuals standing in the fearless protagonist's way...
