I love historical novels. (Admission: I write them myself.) Which is why I was particularly frustrated with this one. Great research in some places ... real errors in others. (See other reviews.) The concept was good .. but the pace was slow, and sometimes the characters were confusing. Plus, the heroine thought and acted more like a twentieth century woman than someone in New Amsterdam. I'm sorry I didn't like this book more .. I really wanted to! This book was so bad in so many ways, and I really was excited about it. I love mysteries and anything historical in NYC, but this really isn't a mystery. It's a horrible story of a serial killer. The writing is poor, especially the dialogue. It's often oddly repetitive. At the same time, it's missing basic internal logic. One character suddenly has a family halfway through the book that was never mentioned before. Everyone knows about the "secret" family, but it's still used to blackmail him.
What do You think about The Orphan Master (2012)?
a bit gruesome but interesting to learn what it was like in New Amsterdam in the 1660's.
—orangefish
I like it! Fascinating history - great story - great characters
—blue214
Couldn't get into this book and didn't finish it.
—Van
