The Lover's Portrait: An Art Mystery

The Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Volume 2

By: Jennifer S. Alderson

Narrated by: Carol Purdom

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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. Alderson

Loving Art through good times and bad.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes....... its combination of Art,History,Mystery and a good thriller make it a compelling
book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Zelda is growing and learning about Art the great suffering of being Jewish during
World War 2 and becoming more of the person she soon will become.

Which scene was your favorite?

N/A

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

History can come home to haunt you.

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Great story, not so great narration...

This is one I've got mixed feelings about. I really enjoyed the story, but I wish I'd read the book instead of the listening to the audiobook in this case. The narration was a mess, with several of the characters being voiced so robotically it was laughable and the main character being voiced almost childishly. It was distracted and took away from what was really an interesting and well-researched mystery. If you're a fan of art history, particularly surrounding what happened to the art stolen by the Nazis in World War II, then you'll enjoy this book. But I'd recommend reading it...***This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.***

The Lovers portrait

I liked this book for the most part. The story was good.The rudeness of the man in charge would have sent me to another gig. Stolen art from Nazi days are being catalogged and hopefully made easy to research on a website in Amsterdam. They hire a novice to fix English Grammer,yet she manages so much more, to little appreciation. Narration was stale aside from 'Hoove?" screaming. I understand the differences in culture and manners.Maybe that is what Carol Purdon was trying to display.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Interesting history

Wrong reader. All the characters, even the Dutch people, sounded as though they came from Missouri, while only one character did.

An excellent mystery.

An exceptional art mystery and entertaining narrator performance to match. I really enjoyed this one.

Great art history mystery!

What a great art history mystery!!! This was such an interesting book about artwork lost during WWII being located and reunited with survivors and their families. Zelda was an incredibly dogged amateur investigator. Even though she did go a bit overboard and get herself into trouble at times she was determined as hell to find out what really happened. I admire that in a character. I loved Fredrick her compliant guy friend too. He was such a good sport. The whole process of reuniting paintings with their original owners seemed so tedious yet satisfying. The story about the painting Irises was just fascinating. It was heartbreaking, beautiful and tragic.
There were parts of the book that were a bit drawn out like the museum meetings themselves and some of Zelda’s internal thoughts but nothing too extreme.
This audiobook was well produced. The parts of all the Dutch characters were really well done as were those of all the other characters. Each one easy to understand while still being distinct.
I’m excited to listen to the next book in the series. I look forward to seeing what else Zelda gets herself involved in.

A must for those who enjoy WW2 stories.

I really enjoyed this story. I’m not always a fan of books that jump back and forth in time, but the author managed to do this in such a way that I didn’t get all confused.

I didn’t really enjoy the narrator. She gets a bit too shrill and it raked my nerves a bit. But she spoke well and I was able to follow the story well enough.

As someone who has never been to Amsterdam, I found the description of this city just enough for me to imagine the city.

Well done to the author.

Enjoy 'Nancy Drew' of Amsterdam in this Mystery

The teaser on the front cover gave me some idea where the story was going—One painting. Two claimants. Three murders. Isn’t that intriguing?

What I particularly liked about this book is how the author weaves an excellent mystery around a time period and subject I rarely read about. It is quite the eye-opener. The author is familiar with her material from personal experience, living in Amsterdam. She also has degrees in art history and museum studies. With her journalist background, passion for writing, along with the credentials, she created a believable and cunning plot.

I appreciated her story crafting, providing pieces of the mystery while keeping me guessing all along; the way she keeps the mystery unfolding; and the way she moves the reader from the 1940’s to the present as the mystery and suspense coil ever-tighter.

I learned so much about how artists were able to ‘hide’ their work from the greed of those who would take what doesn’t belong to them. I didn’t feel the author pushed ‘history’ down my throat, rather it came as a by-product of the story unfolding. Well written!

This story captures how times have changed, just some 80 years ago, people were much less accepting and tolerant of different life styles. We still struggle with this, however.

I enjoy Zelda’s not-letting-anything-slide attitude with a bit of humor thrown in. She is quite the Nancy Drew of Amsterdam. I also enjoy her exuberance for getting into the Master’s program. I’m hoping Frederick and she will have a future. He is a true friend. Perhaps in a sequel?

The story was a bit of a slow starter and the initial voice portrayed by Carol Purdom fell flat for me, that is, the voice for the museum’s project manager. However, her voice for the old woman who claims the painting is hers, and the belligerent curator reliving his past disappointments, has her doing an admirable job adding energy to the telling.

All-in all, I enjoyed the sleuth and well-written plot.

Great Historical Trip

The second in the Zelda Richardson series, though the novels can be read as standalones, The Lover's Portrait is a fascinating combination of mystery, romance, and historical fiction. Seventy five years after the outbreak of World War II many art and other cultural artifacts from the areas the Nazis inhabited are still missing.

When Zelda is tasked with helping a museum in Amsterdam with their forgotten artwork exhibit she is drawn into a mystery surrounding one of the paintings. The painting is not one of great value, but can it lead to a cache of other missing artwork? I really enjoyed the historical elements of this novel and the modern day characters reaction to these. The twists and turns of these historical influences wee very interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Interesting book

I thought this was a really interesting book. I've always enjoyed art, but I didn't really know anything about establishing providence of a piece of art. This book takes you inside the business as Zelda works to uncover the mystery behind the painting, "Irises," as she works to return stolen artwork to its rightful owner. I thought the characters in this book were interesting and the mystery was well-thought-out. I listened to the Audible audio edition of this book. I thought the male characters sounded the same, but other than that, she did a good job. Overall, a good book. I'm looking forward to seeing more books in this series.