A random scrap of Augustan poetry muttered in a tobacconist's shop thrusts absent-minded scholar Richard Meredith through a trap-door into short-lived leadership of London's greatest art racket. Then it's a chase on the twisting trail of the Titians and Giottos - a roller-coaster ride from the highland islands of Scotland to America's rich east coast. And all the time Meredith is at grips with problems which are hardly academic.