" I found this book very readable and the mystery within to be fast-paced and page-turning. And there were many very funny parts where I truly laughed outloud. (I kept imagining Hugh Grant making the observations of the narrator, and that made it even more amusing for me!) I liked the combination of the present discovery of the art mystery of the past that was done so well in Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time." It's plausible to believe that the narrator, who has studied Dutch philosophy, art, and history, and his wife, an art historian, both with finely honed academic research skills, might certainly make an art discovery that others have missed. But there was just too much 16th century history and politics--way more, I think, than was needed to tell the story. And this detracted from the interest of the book for me. If I'm reading a novel, I'm looking for novel qualities, not treatises on 16h century Netherlands that go on and for pages. Fifty pages less of the Netherlands, and it would have been a 4-star read. "
— Catherine, 12/20/2013