The Swan Thieves

Title: The Swan Thieves

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Pages: 16 discs?

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Andrew Marlowe is a single psychiatrist, satisfied with his life working at a full-time care center. He is devoted to painting and intrigued when the renowned painter Robert Oliver is entrusted into his care after he attacks a painting with a knife in the National Gallery. As Dr. Marlowe begins to try and unravel the mystery of Oliver's illness he crosses his own ethical boundaries in his search for more information about the obsessions of Robert Oliver.

My Review: As you may know, Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel, The Historian, is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this book, her second novel. The Swan Thieves dives deep into painting, 100-year-old love letters and French Impressionism with Dr. Marlowe trying to unravel the mystery between them and it never really caught my fancy. I felt that the plot was fairly weak and the story slow as I found myself daydreaming quite often while I was listening to the book. That being said, from reading other reviews online, there are quite a number of people with whom the book really resonated.

The Historian

Title: The Historian

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Pages: 656

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: A

Synopsis: A teenage girl finds an old book hidden in her father's library that is entirely blank save for a woodcut of a dragon on the center pages. The dragon is holding a placard with the word 'DRAKULYA'. She also finds a stack of letters addressed to "My Dear and Unfortunate Successor" and begins trying to find out what hidden secrets her father has from his past. When her father was a student at Oxford, his graduate school mentor mysteriously disappears from his office only minutes after confiding to him that he believes that Dracula is still alive.

My Review: It just so happens that for the last three and a half years I have been claiming this book as my favorite. I don't think that I enjoyed it quite as much as I did the first couple times I read it, but it is still in my top 10. I love the descriptions the author provides of the mosques, museums and cities throughout Europe that the characters visit. From browsing other reviews online, it appears that opinions of this book are quite varied, but like I said, it's one of my favorites. I found it fitting that the 100th book I reviewed on this blog, also happened to be the first.

The Historian

Title: The Historian

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Genre: Thriller, set in Europe throughout the 20th century

Pages: 656

Rating (Letter Grade): A

Synopsis: The book begins in 1972 when a young girl finds a strange book in her father's library. The pages of the book have been cut out and there is a woodcut of a dragon inside along with a bunch of letters. The girl asks her father about the woodcut and letters and begins to learn about her fathers involvement in a search for his former mentor who disappeared soon after he made it known that he thought that Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) was still alive. The girl also begins to learn more and more about her long dead mother because she was also involved in the search.

My Review: I thought that it would be acceptable to start with my favorite book. This book is very similar to the Da Vinci Code in that the characters of the book are on an international wild goose chase. There are three seperate plot lines - one of the mentor in the 1930's, one of the father in the 1950's and the main storyline with the daughter in the 1970's. The story is very well told and there are twists and turns around every corner. A very suspenseful book indeed!