Swan Thieves

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Ready to start off the week?  Yea, me neither.  Though, I did wake up extra early this morning...so I must be doing something right.  Let's start off the week with a book review.

Have you ever read The Historian?  If you look on almost any "best of" list within the past ten years, you'll find it listed.  It's a bit of a haul, clocking in at 700+ pages and I've heard mixed reviews from people I actually know that have read it.  Swan Thieves is the same author's more recent release and the two girls in my book club who have read both said I should start with it.  So I did.

Swan Thieves comes in as a little lighter reading with only 500+ pages.  The story is mostly told by a psychiatrist, Andrew Marlowe, who has been "given" the new patient of Robert Oliver.  No one knows what to do with Robert and Andrew has a gift of making anyone open up to him.  So why not let this magician of a psychiatrist "fix" Robert?

So, what has Robert done to cause his institutionalization?  He's attempted to stab a painting.  In a museum.  In broad daylight.  That's right...he attempted to stab a painting.  And once he was taken into custody he did not speak a single word...except a few short ones with Andrew, initially. 

This book is a mysterious, slightly gothic novel involving love, theft, broken hearts and (of course) the love of art.  It was pretty long-winded and there were definitely some slow parts, but overall I thought it was pretty good.  There is a twist involving a long ago mystery that Robert has attempted to uncover, causing his fit in the museum.  Andrew solves this mystery in the end and it's pretty fantastic.

I'm not 100% sure I'll be picking up The Historian immediately...it is, after all, a read that involves an investment of time.  And quite a bit of it.  I am hoping that when I do pick it up though, that it's better than "good," which is what I classify Swan Thieves as...good, not great, but good.  And if I'm going to invest that much time and effort...I want great.

P.S. There was an error with the link for my MIL's German chocolate cake frosting recipe last week, it has since been fixed.  Sorry for the mishap!