Tintin and Alph-Art - Synopsis

Synopsis

The story opens with Captain Haddock having a nightmare of being visited by Bianca Castafiore, who demands that he take his medicine (actually a bottle of Loch Lomond whisky). When he refuses, as he still cannot stand the beverage after the events of the previous book, Castafiore turns into a huge bird-like creature and begins to attack Haddock. Fortunately, Tintin manages to wake him up, whereupon Tintin receives a telephone call from the real Castafiore, who tells him that she has arrived in Belgium for a few days. She continues her conversation with Tintin, telling him about her new spiritual leader, Endaddine Akass, with whom she intends to stay at his villa in Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples.

Later that morning, Captain Haddock comes across Castafiore in a Brussels street, and in order to avoid her, dashes into the nearby Fourcart Gallery, where he meets Jamaican avant-garde artist Ramó Nash (the master of "Alph-Art") and the owner of the gallery, Henri Fourcart. Fourcart displays considerable interest in meeting Tintin. At the gallery, Haddock is pressed into purchasing a perspex letter "H" ("Personalph-Art") created by Nash. That evening, when Haddock returns to Marlinspike, he and Tintin watch a news report featuring their old friend Emir Ben Kalish Ezab, who, flushed with oil profits, plans to buy Windsor Castle from the Government of the United Kingdom and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The same news program then features a report on the suspicious death of art expert Jacques Monastir, who is presumed drowned off the coast of Ajaccio, Corsica.

The next morning, Tintin learns that Fourcart was killed in a car accident, apparently en route to visit him. He visits the gallery to "make a few enquiries" and meets Martine Vandezande, the gallery assistant, who wears large glasses and a strange pendant resembling two E's lined back to back. She discusses the death of her former employer, while her conversation with Tintin is recorded by a reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden under the counter. Tintin then visits the Garage de l'Avenir at Leignault, where the mechanic tells him the location of Fourcart's car crash. Tintin drives there on his motor scooter and is pursued by a black Mercedes. At the scene, Tintin discovers that Fourcart was murdered. The drivers of the black Mercedes then make a botched attempt on Tintin's life. He returns to Marlinspike and tells the Captain about the events of the day.

The next morning, Tintin returns to the gallery and accuses Miss Martine of telling his attackers he was going to visit Leignault. However, she bursts into tears, suggesting to a shocked Tintin that she may be innocent. On his way home, Tintin sees a poster in the street advertising a conference titled "Health and Magnetism" to be held by the mystic Endaddine Akass, who is shown on the poster wearing a pendant similar to Miss Martine's. That evening, Tintin and Haddock attend the meeting, where they see not only Miss Martine (a follower of Akass's movement) but also the Thompson twins and Mr. Sakharine (from The Secret of the Unicorn) in attendance. During the ceremony, Tintin recognises the voice of Akass, but cannot place it. He and Haddock encounter Miss Martine as she leaves the conference. Tintin asks her about the pendant that she wears, which was given to her and "magnetized" by Akass. Believing that he is beginning to understand the affair, Tintin informs Miss Martine the next morning of his plan to unmask Fourcart's murderers. Late that evening, he arrives, carrying a red lamp, at the old Fréaux factory, where he had arranged to meet an informer. Tintin lights his lamp, and the "informer" shoots at him. He avoids injury and attempts to arrest the informer, who is saved when an accomplice knocks Tintin unconscious. He awakes in hospital with Haddock at his bedside, to whom he explains his revelation that there is a micro-transmitter concealed in the pendant worn by Miss Vandezande. Tintin infers that Endaddine Akass gave the unwitting Miss Martine the pendant in order to spy upon Fourcart and senses that he is inextricably linked to his death.

The next morning (despite doctor's orders), Tintin visits each of the other occupants in the apartments that house the Fourcart Gallery. He visits the occupants under the pretence of conducting a survey on solar power, and recognises a particularly rude resident as Akass's assistant at the meeting. Knowing that he has been recognized, Akass's assistant sends Tintin away and telephones someone, and then agrees to "take care of" Tintin. The next morning, Tintin leaves the Hall for the village on his motor scooter, and is pursued by the same men who had attacked him in the Mercedes. They shoot at Tintin, whose scooter careens off-road and crashes into a tree. Before the would-be assassins can confirm if Tintin was killed, Haddock, having heard the gunfire, arrives in his car, causing them to flee. Once they are gone, Tintin climbs down from his hiding place inside a pollarded willow. Tintin, Haddock and Calculus later assess the situation around the table. Tintin concludes that the entire affair revolves around Endaddine Akass, and that they should find out more about him. Remembering Castafiore's telephone call several days earlier, he decides to go to Ischia, where Akass has a villa.

Upon their arrival, Tintin and Haddock spy out the land, observing Akass's villa from a distance, where they see Ramó Nash (the pioneer of "Alph-Art" from whom Haddock bought his perspex "H"). At their hotel, Tintin receives a threatening telephone call warning him to leave the island, and Haddock receives one from Castafiore, who has discovered their presence on the island, and, informing them that Akass is in Rome for a few days, invites them to the villa. The next morning, they arrive at the villa, where Castafiore introduces them to a number of her friends: the debutante Angelina Sordi, the corrupt industrialists Mr Gibbons (from The Blue Lotus) and Mr Trickler (from The Broken Ear), Emir Ben Kalish Ezab (from Land of Black Gold), Luigi Randazzo (a singer), and Ramó Nash. Tintin and Haddock stay the night at the villa on Castafiore's insistence.

Tintin is awakened by a noise in the middle of the night, and looking out of the window, sees men loading canvases into a van. Intrigued, he explores the villa. In a huge room he comes across a number of paintings by the great masters—Modigliani, Léger, Renoir, Picasso, Gauguin and Monet—and discovers them all to be fakes. He is discovered by Endaddine Akass, of whom it is revealed that he uses Ramó Nash's "Alph-Art" as a front for large-scale art forgeries. He admits to ordering the "disappearance" of Monastir and Fourcart, who were aware of his activities (and in Fourcart's case, wanted to expose them to Tintin), and states that as Tintin knows too much, he will have to die, too. Akass tells Tintin that in order to kill him, he will have liquid polyester poured over him, so that he may be turned into a statue, be "signed" by César, and authenticated by a (presumably corrupt) art expert. The "expansion" piece, entitled "Reporter", will then be sold to a museum or a rich collector. Tintin is led away by one of Akass's men to a cell, where he is locked up. He manages to make contact with Snowy, who is outside the cell. He writes a note to the Captain and throws it to Snowy through the bars on the window. Night passes, and in the morning, Tintin is awakened by Akass's bodyguard. As the guard leads Tintin out of the cell, he says,

It is at this point that The Adventures of Tintin ends, and what is going to happen next, or who Akass really is, is unknown. The text as a whole is essentially a rough draft, and contains enough room for revision.