Once again I am on tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. I am really enjoying meeting all the authors and having a chance to read their books. Today I am welcoming Heidi Eljarbo and her wonderfully addictive book, The Other Cipher: Soli Hansen Mysteries Book 2.
The Other Cipher
Soli Hansen Mysteries Book 2
By Heidi Eljarbo
In the captivating second book of the Soli Hansen Mysteries, two women—separated by more than three hundred years—are connected through their love of art.1613. Fabiola Ruber is been wed to a man she does not know and must live in a country with a new language and different customs. The memories of a lost love in her hometown Malta haunt her, and she sets out to find an artist who can do her portrait and recapture the feelings she had when she once modeled for a renowned Italian master painter.
1944. Four years into World War II, art historian Soli Hansen works with the Norwegian resistance to locate significant artwork and safeguard the pieces from the Nazis. When she finds out the Germans are after a hidden baroque depiction of a seventeenth century woman, she must muster all her courage and skills to decipher encrypted codes and preserve the mysterious art before it’s too late.
Both women are determined to do what they can to bring healing and redemption to their otherwise ominous future. Through tangled, bewildering clues and an eye for detail, Soli’s bond to Fabiola grows closer by the day. She must find the missing painting before the enemy does.
Ranging from a privileged life in seventeenth century Antwerp to Oslo during the German occupation of the second world war, this dual timeline is a historical mystery thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Oh my, that cover! You know what I am like for a striking cover—I am a bit like a magpie in that sense, I like pretty things, and that cover is certainly pretty!! But you know what they say, “don’t judge a book by the cover” but in this case, I am afraid I did! But enough about the cover, I should really be talking about the inside, you know, the story!
Confession time, I thought the Resistance was all about blowing things up, helping the allies and causing chaos and confusion, I did not realise they were also into stealing artwork to stop the Nazis from stealing it first! Whether they did, or whether they did not, it does not matter for that is what this novel is about, and I don’t have the time to research what they Resistance did and didn’t do. Anyway, I am going off the point, there is this painting which the Nazis really want, but the Resistance is determined to find it first and hide it. It all sounds rather simplistic, but no one knows where the painting is, and the one person who does know so happens to be Jewish, and he and his family were taken by the Nazis to goodness know where – the only clue he has left is a cypher. It is all very Dan Brown!
Alongside this fast-paced, energetic story is the story of the origins of the painting, so we also spend some time in the seventeenth century, where a young woman commissions a portrait of herself with her young daughter and their two dogs, but she doesn’t want any old painter to do it, she wants Rubens (you know, the artist with the cool hat and wicked moustache)! I really enjoyed this part of the book, I have been a fan of Rubens for a long old while, and I racked my brains trying to remember this particular portrait only to realise the author had used a bit of creative licence. Yes, I admit it, there was a facepalm moment on my part. Not that this made any difference to how much I enjoyed this novel. My only complaint, is that I would have liked to have spent a little more time in the seventeenth century, but I think that was because I would have loved to have read more about Rubens.
What I really liked about this story was the length. I know that sounds totally mad. But so often historical fiction novels are massively long books, and it takes me so long to get through them. This novel is compact, filled with non-stop action, and I read it in under three hours. Perfect!
I have not read the first book in this series, but it did not take me long to figure out who everyone was and what their role in the story was. My favourite character was definitely Heddy who, despite her own circumstances, is determined to see the Nazi occupation come to an end in Norway.
I really enjoyed this novel, and I will be certainly reading more books by this author in the future.
I received my copy of this book from The Coffee Pot Book Club but you can grab yours on Amazon Uk or Amazon US (depending where you live)!
Heidi Eljarbo is the bestselling author of historical fiction and mysteries filled with courageous and good characters that are easy to love and others you don't want to go near.
Heidi grew up in a home filled with books and artwork and she never truly imagined she would do anything other than write and paint. She studied art, languages, and history, all of which have come in handy when working as an author, magazine journalist, and painter.
After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She and her husband have a total of nine children, thirteen grandchildren--so far--in addition to a bouncy Wheaten Terrier.
Their favorite retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summertime and ski the vast, white terrain during winter.
Heidi's favorites are family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.
Or you can head over to Social Media and find Heidi there:
Thank you so much for a wonderful review. Heidi
ReplyDeleteLOVE this cover!
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