What's Bred in the Bone

What's Bred in the Bone is the second novel in the Canadian writer Robertson Davies' ''Cornish Trilogy''. It is the life story of Francis (or Frank) Cornish, whose death and will were the starting point for the first novel, The Rebel Angels.

Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed.

Told in stylish, elegant prose and endowed with lavish portions of Robertson Davies's wit and wisdom, he makes use of guardian angels to tell this wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown. The other books in the trilogy are The Rebel Angels and The Lyre of Orpheus.