The Apothecary's House
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When an old woman storms into the Rijks Museum demanding the return of her painting, archivist Ruth Braams delves into the history of the piece of looted Nazi art, and discovers a picture with a disturbing wartime provenance. Days later, Ruth begins to receive sinister anonymous threats, warning her to stay away from Lydia, and the painting.
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I find it difficult to say exactly what the problem is with this book. The writing is fine; nothing extraordinary, but I've read worse (Dan Brown, Crichton, Grisham, even Lee Child has his moments). There was a plot: art mystery, Nazis, mysterious messages from a sinister stranger.
But the characters... I just didn't care. I was so bored... FOR 700 PAGES. A page turner this wasn't - and even if it was I would still have been at it a week, just developing RSI.
On and on they wittered and waffled and nothing happened. At least when nothing happens in Dickens the writing is worth wasting time over.
When things happened, they seemed to... do so... without... any URGENCY. Even the EXCITING bits were dull.
There just wasn't enough here to support such a tome. Wittled down a good 70% it might have been OK, we could have done without the weird unnecessary backstory that hinted at character without actually developing any...