A Use of Riches by J.I.M. Stewart was first published in 1957.  He also wrote under the name of Michael Innes, those books quite often feature the world of art, as does this one.

Rupert Craine is arranging his will. He’s a very wealthy banker, his hobby is collecting expensive art and he’s married to a much younger woman who had been a young widow. She has two sons by her first husband, aged 10 and 12. Their father had been a very successful artist and his work is much sought after, he had been killed in WW2. Rupert and Jill have two much younger children together.

Life is good, until a telegram arrives from Italy, it seems that the first husband is still alive. Rupert and Jill go to Italy to deal with it, thinking there must have been a mistake.

This was quite a good read, but it was slightly spoiled by the personality of Rupert which is stiff upper lipish. He seems like a bit of a cold fish (as was said about Soames Forsyte)  although a distinct improvement on the first husband! He just seems like an unlikely character to me.

This was one of my 20 Books of Summer 2023.