MADAM Zoia, the famous Russian artist who painted on gold and was the last known survivor of the Romanov court, is dead. But the ghosts of her past refuse to stay silent.

Death has made her work highly collectable, with the flames fanned further by an exhibition in her adopted home of Sweden. Marcus Elliot, a former art dealer who has fallen on hard times, is asked unexpectedly to write the catalogue that will accompany the exhibition and sale.

But has he been called on because of his skills or his failings? As time goes by, he suspects his new employers want him to fail, but their reasons remain as impenetrable as Zoia's dense paintings.

As Marcus learns more about Zoia, spending time in her Swedish home and reading the many letters she has written to her many lovers, he finds himself engulfed by her charms and intrigued by the mystery that surrounds her work.

Zoia liked her secrets. But Marcus may have found the key to unlocking them in the form of a golden painting kept hidden since his own mother's untimely death 30 years before.

Philip Sington's novel draws on the real life of Zoia Korvin-Krukovsky, who left behind a huge amount of correspondence in several languages. He spent months wading through the material, translating, collating and cross-referencing in the same way as Marcus Elliot.

The author says Madam Zoia has changed his life. And while it occasionally gets too caught up in its thriller-style plotting to the detriment of the finer aspects of the characters, Sington's book is a fine monument to his muse.

Updated: 10:17 Saturday, January 21, 2006