I read this in November on my winter holiday, I had this on my kindle and knew very little about it. It had a feel of the Girl with the Pearl Earing it has an air of mystery. Set in 1686 in Amsterdam newly wed Petronella arrives to take up residence with her husband and his family.
This has a Du Maurier feel of the second Mrs De Winter arriving at Mannerly. The reader feels for Petronella and what seems like a really dysfunctional family and husband who appears as though she does not exist.
The reader gets pulled into this house, secrets people who are not as they appear to be.
Her husband gifts her a replica cabinet house and enlists a miniaturist to create miniature objects and people - all too soon the house is becoming strangely familiar and she is living her life through this.
The characters are strange but real, the author writes well and enables the reader imagine Amsterdam at this time with frozen canals.
This is a different age with different values, prejudices, betrayal and identity.
Wonderfully written and this is the authors debut novel what a start to her writing career.
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