The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery
The Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Volume 2
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The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery
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Narrated by:
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Carol Purdom
About this listen
Missing masterpieces, Nazi blackmailers, and a pesky amateur sleuth.
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, 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 it is and why, Zelda learns about the Dutch art dealer's concealed collection. And that Irises is the key to finding it all.
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.
- Chill with a Book's January 2018 Book of the Month
- One of TripFiction’s 10 Favorite Books set in Amsterdam
- One of The Displaced Nation's Top 36 Expat Fiction Picks of 2016
- Number 14 in the BookLife Prize for Fiction 2016, Mystery category
- Silver Cup Winner of Rosie's Book Review Team Awards 2017 in the Mystery category
The Lover’s Portrait is the perfect novel for those who love art, history, and mystery. The Adventures of Zelda Richardson series are stand-alone novels and can be listened to in any order.
©2016 Jennifer S. Alderson (P)2017 Jennifer S. AldersonListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Colin
- 07-06-18
Art & Intrigue
An excellent story with only a few minor reservations over the narration. Lost art, nazis and desperate people - all make for a great story full of history and art in context.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- DabOfDarkness
- 26-09-18
Fun but could use some polishing
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.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Happy reviewer
- 15-12-17
Gripping art mystery
This has all the ingredients of a great mystery story: plucky heroine, machiavellian villains, interesting background, and lost of twists and turns culminating in a gripping finale.
The narration is good, with the narrator managing to take on the voices of the different characters and inject emotions of excitement, fear, frustration and anxiety into her reading.
Recommended for fans of mysteries especially those with an interest in art.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Frieda
- 16-12-19
Gripping and entertaining.
Very good entertaining story. The whole process was interesting and I was glad of how it turned out.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Curzon Tussaud
- 26-02-23
Gripping art history story with roots in WWII.
The story concerns works of art hidden by a Dutchman during WWII so that they shouldn’t fall into Nazi hands, and how they were eventually rediscovered thanks to a zealous young American art history student.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jan M
- 02-06-19
Art History Mystery
The Lover's Portrait by Jennifer S. Alderson brought together many great elements. I loved the art, the history, the twists and turns, the setting of Amsterdam, the vivid imagery, and some of the characters. The author is fantastic meshing fact with fiction. I learned things about World War II that I never imagined. This book has many realistic things about it, along with thought provoking insights. In an over-simplification, the story melds past with present, murder and a treasure hunt. I was drawn to the character of Zelda Richardson. Carol Purdom was perfect bringing the characters to life. She gives them distinguishable voices, and lets one hear exactly whom is speaking. History and Mystery are two genres I really enjoy, and I've listened to Ritual's of The Dead by this author, so I was automatically intrigued by the book. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I will most definitely listen to more books by both the author and narrator.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-09-22
Would not recommend
Poorly written. So much repetition that I couldn't get past chapter 3. I had to think whether the reader was a real person or just AI. Would not recommend.
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