The Apothecary's House

by Adrian Mathews

Book Overview

When an old woman storms into the Rijks Museum demanding the return of her painting, archivist Ruth Braams cannot quell her curiosity. Together with Myles, her gay confidant, Ruth delves into the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1405046570
• ISBN13: 9781405046572
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Macmillan
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

The Apothecaries House

Excellent story for adults with a yen for thrillers, well written and with humour,great characterisation, and brilliant descriptions that bring to vivid life the people and places in Amsterdam. Perhaps a few too many Latin sentences which can leave the reader a little out in the cold, if Latin is not your first language. Mathews builds the suspense quietly, but surely and I found myself turning pages eagerly looking for the next link in the story. Hard to put down.

A nice long book that will keep you reading

I picked this book up at the airport, never having heard of it, but the author had won the Silver Dagger award for his previous book and I have in the past liked authors that have won this award, so I bought it on a whim. It's not a completely easy read, as some of the reviewers of his previous book (Vienna Blood) have commented. His writing is sometimes stilted and he does use unusual phrasing and words (good to have a dictionary nearby!). BUT, the book is very readable and the storyline captivating. The book is a hefty 706 pages in paperback, but I didn't find it too long nor did I feel like skipping sections. The story is set in Amsterdam, the main character working at an art museum, specializing in repatriating artwork to their rightful heirs. She comes across a painting that is being contested by two possible owners and she get inextricably involved with one of them. That is when strange things begin to happen. The only negative comment I have is that the ending seemed somewhat rushed. After having spent a good 400-odd pages delivering the story and setting the scene, the ending took just under 100 pages. But this does not detract from the story in a major way. Although Mathews' other book, Vienna Blood, seems to have gotten very scathing reviews, after having read this book, I am quite interested in reading it myself.