The Amber Room

There were some things about this book that I really enjoyed, but there was a lot about it that I found difficult to like. The discussions of art and history were wonderful. I found myself wishing there were photographs of the art that was mentioned included in the book, and I appreciated the history lesson, as well as the author's theory (or fantasy?) about what may have happened to some of the pieces that Nazis stole that have never been found. Unfortunately, I had a hard time appreciating the characters. I liked Paul okay, and Rachel grew on me a little, but I kept finding myself less concerned about them than I was about the art they were searching for. Knoll is designed to be a character that readers hate, but he kind of goes above and beyond. There is nothing even slightly sympathetic about him, and his actions near the end were just too much, especially considering the fact that he probably had more important things to do at that point in the plot twists. Speaking of plot twists! There were a lot of them, but it kind of felt a little forced. All of the characters kept ending up in the same place at the same time over and over again. It started to feel like a winding road, rather than a rollercoaster. I hate to say that I didn't love this book as much as I'd hoped, but it does have some redeeming qualities. I will be reading more books by Steve Berry in the future, mainly because I really appreciated the history and his take on what could have happened. I believe the Amber Room was his first published work, and it kind of shows. I expect the ones that follow it will be far better.

The "Amber Room" of the Tsars is famous all over the world, but its story is not really known to many. This well-written book gives a concise history of the room, anf then goes into a taut drama of the search by several people for this "lost" treasure. There's action aplenty, of the page-turning variety, and the characters are very well-written and defined. Once you begin this book, you get immediately pulled into the plot, and spend many extra hours reading it, when you should probably be sleeping. You just can't help wondering what's going to happen on the next page, so you just keep going. Isn't that the best that can be said of a thriller?

Steve Berry has written an excellent debut novel that rivals Grisham's, Patterson's and Clancy's thrillers. His presentation of the historical aspects included in the novel leaves the reader hurriedly turning to the next page. I found the knowledge of the Amber Room fascinating. This was a part of history that I was not familiar with. It is hard to believe that Berry has never been published before. I can't wait for his next book to be released.

If this doesn't make the NYT best sellers listing, I'll eat my hat. If Steve Berry's first book is any indication, he'll rise to stellar heights in the industry. If you haven't bought your "First Edition" yet, get it before it's too late. Those who bought J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book know what I mean. The book is informative, believable, and well-researched. Apart from the fascinating history lessons, I found the protagonists to be characters that will grow on you. I can't wait for the next book.

Steve Berry delights his readers with this fast paced novel with exotic venues, intiguing history, and a suspenseful storyline. I had the pleasure of reading this book while crossing the country to California most recently and found this time to be one of the best parts of my trip. Kudos to Mr. Berry, the book moves with the same pace as the works of another attorney, John Grisham. Great Job Steve.

Fact: Three hundred years ago, Frederick of Prussia commissioned it; for centuries, the Romanovs cherished and protected it; Hitler seized it; Goring coveted it; the Russians wanted it back...but in the final days of World War II, the fabulous Amber Room was disassembled and vanished. Fiction: in the grand tradition of Ludlum and Le Carre, Steve Berry's engrossing debut novel presupposes the possibility of the Room's resurfacing almost sixty years later as the object of a killer-take-all, international treasure hunt with its naive protagonists, Judge Rachel Cutler and her ex-husband Paul, being inexorably drawn deeper and deeper into the dark and deadly world of art collectors who will stop at nothing to further their mania. Rachel and Paul still have a live-and-let-live relationship, so when her adored father, Russian emigre/Holocaust survivor Karol Borya, dies suddenly under questionable circumstances, Rachel asks Paul for help in settling his estate. Borya has left her an enigmatic legacy: letters and documentation which identify and speak of but warn her against the Amber Room...a tentative connecting link between it and the recent, inexplicable deaths of Paul's parents...and the unavoidable conclusion that Borya and at least one of his contemporaries knew where the priceless amber panels comprising the Room had been hidden by the Nazis. Was Borya murdered for this knowledge? Determined to find some answers, Rachel impulsively sets out to try and locate her father's old friend and is manipulated into acquiring a treacherous new one in her quest for the truth: amoral Christian Knoll, hired assassin for one of the ringleaders in a highly-secret, international art cartel aka The Retrievers of Lost Antiquities. While Rachel is learning a terrifying lesson about trust, Paul has an equally unfortunate encounter with exotic Suzanne Danzer, Knoll's bitter enemy and rival. Convinced that Rachel is in real trouble, Paul follows her to Germany. Reluctantly they join forces with likeable but unscrupulous entrepreneur, Wayland Drew (who has his own plans for the Room), and together they manage to track it to a cavern deep in the Harz Mountains only to discover that they have arrived too late...the panels have disappeared again...and the trail that will eventually lead them to the legendary artifact in situ is both perilous and bloody. "Over my dead body" acquires a whole new meaning within the walls of the Amber Room.It's really hard to believe that this is a first novel. Its fast-moving, complex plot is tightly and beautifully structured for maximum emotional impact; the central characters (both heroic and villainous) seem totally real within the context of the storyline, and its high-powered combination of fact with fiction overlaid with romance and genuinely chilling suspense make for a real nail-biter of a reading experience. I'm a thriller fan, fairly choosy about what I expect from the genre, and I found it very hard to put this book down