A portrait holds the key to recovering a cache of looted artwork, secreted away during World War II, in this captivating historical art thriller set in the 1940s and present-day Amsterdam.When a Dutch art dealer hides the stock from his gallery – rather than turn it over to his Nazi blackmailer – he pays with his life, leaving a treasure trove of modern masterpieces buried somewhere in Amsterdam, … buried somewhere in Amsterdam, presumably lost forever. That is, until American art history student Zelda Richardson sticks her nose in.
After studying for a year in the Netherlands, Zelda scores an internship at the prestigious Amsterdam Museum, where she works on an exhibition of paintings and sculptures once stolen by the Nazis, lying unclaimed in Dutch museum depots almost seventy years later.
When two women claim the same portrait of a young girl entitled Irises, Zelda is tasked with investigating the painting’s history and soon finds evidence that one of the two women must be lying about her past. Before she can figure out which one and why, Zelda learns about the Dutch art dealer’s concealed collection. And that Irises is the key to finding it.
Her discoveries make her a target of someone willing to steal – and even kill – to find the missing paintings. As the list of suspects grows, Zelda realizes she has to track down the lost collection and unmask a killer if she wants to survive.
- Awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion by indieBRAG’s readers in March 2019
- Chosen as Chill with a Book’s January 2018 Book of the Month and winner of a Chill with a Book Readers’ Award
- One of TripFiction’s 10 Favorite Books set in Amsterdam
- Silver Cup winner in Rosie’s Book Review Team 2017 Awards, Mystery category
- Readers’ Favorite 5 star medal
- One of The Displaced Nation magazine’s Top 36 Expat Fiction Picks of 2016
- One of Women Writers, Women’s Books magazine’s Recommended Reads for April 2017.
Set in present day and wartime Amsterdam, this captivating thriller is not just about stolen paintings, but also the lives that were stolen. This art history mystery also describes the plight of homosexuals and Jewish artists in Europe during World War II, as well as the complexities inherent to the restitution of artwork stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Lover’s Portrait is Book One in the Zelda Richardson Mystery Series. The amateur sleuth mysteries in this series can be read in any order.
PLEASE NOTE: A revised edition of this novel was published in February 2020.more
Clearly passionate about art and art history, Jennifer S. Alderson takes the reader on a fast-paced trek to right the wrongs of the past while immersing you in a delightful tour of Amsterdam. Protagonist Zelda Richardson may be young and a bit naive, but her tenacity and moral compass make up for it. THE LOVER’S PORTRAIT is beautifully written and a fun read. I’m ready to pick up the next adventure by Ms. Alderson.
This book has all the ingredients needed for a great mystery/thriller: history, intrigue, conspiracy, heartbreak, action and suspense. It may sound contrived or mundane to say that a book is a “page-turner” and that one “couldn’t put it down”, but it really is true of ‘The Lover’s Portait’. Set in Amsterdam, t’s a well-designed, fabulous historical puzzle, solved decades later by someone who has no intention of becoming a detective; rather, it is through her dogged commitment to the truth that she uncovers the answers. The author has woven together a number of compelling plot lines to construct her own work of art. It is free of gratuitous violence and sex, making it suitable for Young Adult audiences as well as older readers.
The story moves at a great pace, keeping the reader fully engaged in Zelda’s quest for the truth. The characters are well-developed and very believable. Zelda, as the main protagonist, is flawed and realistic, while the antagonist is both intelligent and cold-hearted, and is therefore very easy to dislike. This is paralleled in the ‘historical’ characters in the story: the protagonists are likeable and genuine, both oppressed for different reasons, while the author has very effectively characterised their NAZI antagonist as cruel and vindictive through his own motivations and actions without resorting to any typecasting or cliche. Throughout the novel, the author succeeds in using the natural empathy of the reader to drive their interest and engagement in the characters and plot without the reader being aware of any such positioning.
As the novel draws to a close, Anderson pulls the various story lines together into a neat and satisfying conclusion, albeit tinged with sadness and regret.
Read it. You’re sure to enjoy this fantastic book.
I loved how the author put her own experiences into the story. I didn’t read the first book, but after reading this one, I will make my way to the first Zelda book. This historical references are great and bring a reality to the story. It’s an intense and highly well written story about Zelda’s investigation into a painting’s history. Great story. Highly recommended and Alderson just found herself a new fan.
The Lover’s Portrait #1 – I absolutely enjoy reading the works of Ms. Alderson. Even though I read all three books out of sequence since discovering the third book first, I was never lost or confused; I like to read any series in order. This is a well-written, multi-story lined suspense complete with good, realistic characters and believable dialogues.
I like that Zelda is a normal person doing the best she can for others and that she is not cast as stupid or neurotic. The intriguing, fast-paced story filled with vivid descriptions makes it difficult to put this book down, but when you need a refill…. I contacted the author to review her books but purchased this book. 5*
Rituals of the Dead #2 – This is my first read by this author and I found it interesting. The storylines flip back and forth between 2017 and 1962. This made for an intriguing suspense although it was easy to figure where the missing person ended up.
The characters were interesting enough to keep me immersed in the pages, along with the author’s easy to read writing style. The descriptions were well done as was the dialog and thought patterns of the characters. I found this book somewhere but when I contacted the author to review Marked for Revenge, I read it first since it turns out this is a series. 4*
Marked for Revenge #3 – This book begins with her thesis being critiqued and three months into a new job at a new location. An interesting story of art theft and revenge, which had enough of the real world mixed with the fiction to hold the reader’s attention until the last page.
The descriptions are well done, the storylines believable and interesting, and the characters and their dialog were also well done. One of the Dutch laws about stolen art blew my mind, but I understand the reasoning behind it. I found this book on Booksprout. 4*
Thrilled at securing an internship at the prestigious Amsterdam Museum, art history student and amateur sleuth, Zelda Richardson, is disappointed when she finds that her role in an important exhibition aimed at reuniting owners with paintings looted by the Nazis in World War II looks like being a minor one. That state of affairs doesn’t last long though and she’s soon in the thick of the action in this pacey art mystery that kept me up reading until the small hours. Zelda is an engaging heroine and the other characters are well drawn. The historical context of the war and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands gives the novel a darker side but a very interesting one. Amsterdam is powerfully evoked in peace and in war. Highly recommended.
I literally found it hard to put this book down.
It contains all of the things I love; mystery and intrigue, murder, lies and deception, murder and World War 2 history.
Set in the art world of Amsterdam, this dual timeline deals with lost and stolen art works from World War 2 and its recovery.
So very well written and researched; I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
international-crime-and-mystery, cultural-exploration, world-war-2, art, art-theft, historical-places-events, historical-research, netherlands, mystery, thriller, amateur-sleuth, intrigue, greed, fraud
The nazis weren’t the only art thieves in the twentieth century, and this excellent mystery gives a nod to the fact that covert theft continues to this day. In an attempt to return stolen artwork to rightful owners, the museum has launched an internet presence. This brings in the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unknown to the museum board, one of their employees is as dishonest as can be and stops at nothing to achieve his own personal agenda. Zelda is only an unpaid intern but she becomes enmeshed in discovering the charade on behalf of a legitimate claimant. Excellent suspense and engaging characters.
Carol Purdom performs the narration beautifully and gives voice to all the characters by enhancing their personalities
I won this free audiobook in a Giveaway!
The aptly named ‘The Lover’s Portait’ finds Zelda interning at the Amsterdam Museum, hoping it will get her accepted into a masters program for Museum Studies. While working on a web site, she chooses to display a random painting from the pieces the museum is trying to return to their original owners. This sparks interest from a number of sources and soon she is embroiled in intrigue that she never anticipated with an even more unexpected outcome.
This engaging book follows a smart American woman who embarks on an intriguing lost art treasure hunt. Who is her ally and who is her foe? The answers can result in success or fatal failure. As a fortunate tourist of Amsterdam, I enjoyed the setting. I lost a little sleep with having to finish this one!
I always enjoy books about art and history. I loved the historical aspect of this book, which was fascinating. But I found it rather slow to get through…as a “mystery” it did not “grab” me.
Note: Even though this is Book 2 in the series, it works fine as a stand alone novel.
I love a good art mystery, where the main character has to dig into the history of an art piece and try to figure out motivations of potential owners. Zelda Richardson has the passion for the job. She was bored sick of her office computer job in Big City, USA and ran off to the Netherlands to study art, working on her master’s degree. I really wanted to like Zelda and eventually I came to care about her in the way I would care about a young niece. She has the appreciation for Dutch art and the dedication to research but she’s not the sharpest pencil in the pack. The clues to the mystery were well laid out and Zelda sometimes took forever to put them together.
Because of that, this cozy murder mystery read more like a kid’s mystery novel. So maybe it’s not so much Zelda but rather how the mystery itself unfolded. I really felt that Zelda acted younger than a woman in her late 20s or early 30s and her slowness in piecing together the clues really added to this. Once I cheated and adjusted Zelda’s age to 15, I liked her more and I enjoyed the tale more.
Most of the story is set in Amsterdam and there were a few scenes sprinkled throughout the story that do well in reminding us of the setting. However, for most of the book, the tale could be set almost anywhere. A few Dutch touches here and there would have added to the atmosphere.
There are two women who claim rightful ownership of a newly recovered portrait called Irises. Rita Brower hails from Missouri (I think) and is friendly. She lived in Amsterdam as a kid and has many fond memories of the place. Karen O’Neil comes in hitting heavy with a pushy attorney, threatening to go to the press with her sob story. I liked that it wasn’t immediately clear which woman had the best case of ownership though Zelda had a clear liking for Rita while her co-worker Huub Konjin clearly favored Karen with all her legal documentation. Her boss Bernice remained professional throughout the entire mess, requiring her employees to look into both cases diligently.
The research pulls in Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WWII and their persecution of homosexuals. I felt Zelda had a very simple take on this: if character X was a homosexual, there’s no way character X could have children. That’s just silly. Plenty of homosexuals and bisexuals have had kids. This argument of Zelda’s was a very weak one but a lot of emphasis was placed on it, making it a weak point in the plot.
Later on, Zelda talks her friend Friedrich into helping her spy on one of the claimants. However, she’s then dumb enough to play this illegal recording for her boss and Huub. Obviously, that doesn’t go well and I was sure Zelda would face charges. Zelda was completely surprised at how things went and I felt this added to the overall feeling that Zelda was more a 15 year old than a 25 year old.
As the story winds up for the big finale, which was easy to predict well before we got there, I was rooting for Zelda. She may be a bit dense but I didn’t want her dead and I did want her to find the big stash of lost art. Since things had been so cozy and rather PG, I wasn’t worried for Zelda’s safety even when she was held at gun point. I did wonder about that one scene where the Bad Guy has to hold her at gun point and pick a lock at the same time….. hmmm…. it usually takes 2 hands to pick a lock. Zelda didn’t take advantage of that moment but she comes up swinging later once she’s worked out that she’s dead if she doesn’t do something.
Over all, it was a fun cozy listen with good pacing. 3.5/5 stars.
The Narration: Carol Purdom has a very pleasant voice to listen to. She makes a decent Zelda and a really great Rita (Missouri accent). She does well as the slightly outraged Karen too. I was expecting the Dutch characters to have Dutch accents, but they didn’t. They usually sounded a bit formal or stilted but not with Dutch accents. There’s a few lines of German here and there and Perdom’s German pronunciation needs some polishing. She was really good with the emotions, especially Zelda’s. 3.5/5 stars.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Jennifer S. Alderson. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
I love books about the return of art stolen by the Nazis.
Similar to the recent discovery in Germany of a trove of art treasures, this novel focuses on the attempt to reunite families of Holicaust survivors with lost or stolen art work. With flashbacks to 1942 and an interesting cast of characters, the story is compelling and enjoyable.
Really enjoyed this one