Set in Amsterdam, the story involves 'a looted painting, a secret code, a deadly pursuit....'. The 17th century painting which exerts such a hold over the two principal protagonists, a young art researcher Ruth, and Lydia, an extremely elderly claimant of the picture, turns out to have a value beyond its qualities as a somewhat mediocre painting, and so a racy mystery story unfolds.
Lydia is not the only one to want the painting. We time-travel from 17th century Amsterdam, through the Nazi-occupied town, to the modern city as the plot develops. Often complicated, sometimes baffling, the plot was less important to me than the evocations of Amsterdam itself in its various guises. I enjoyed the descriptions of the city and those who lived there and contributed to the story: Ruth and Lydia in particular, but also some of the 'bit parts' - Ruth's colleague Myles, her father, even the cat, Principessa. The plotting at the end of the story seems somewhat sensationalist and rushed, but I was happy to keep reading for the pleasure of continuing to get to know Amsterdam itself. The book was in any case, quite a page-turner.
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