You will yearn for a color plate of one of the paintings described in this novel.
The heroine, young English aspiring painter, goes timidly into the Paris Winter and discovers her own naiveté. Friends from the Parisian Acadamie Lafond, sashay thru their own adventures, into the fanciest Russian salons of Paris and into the bowels of Paris underground.
Robertson has done a great job describing the atelier of woman painters and the streets of Paris as she spins a tale of morals and mortals. Another story about strong women that doesn't include romance.

Could not put this book down! Two stories at once! What a bargain! April is the "furniture" expert for an auction company. As she discovers treasures in the apartment which has been shuttered for 70 years, she also discovers journals of the woman who owned the apartment. The journalist comes alive for April, giving her a passion for the just how the treasures should be auctioned. As her stay in Paris progresses she comes to terms with her own marriage and life in New York and discovers a new kind of relationship with the handsome Parisian solicitor. Thoroughly enjoyed the author's knowledge of the auction world, antiques and the Belle Epoque era. A great read.

Having read Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, I expected to enjoy this book as much. I did not. I did not feel like I knew the characters in book. Their character development was a thin veneer. Perhaps this was because so much was written about where they were but I did not feel tied to events of the world with these characters. I had trouble placing them in the world around them. There was too little about the actual work of RLS and too much repeated about his illness. I finished the book feeling I knew little about RLS works' impact on the society of the day. I felt the author was limited to the diaries of Fanny.
I didn't feel like I had learned anything of importance when I finished the book.

It was average read. Not a lot of twists and turns. Characters seemed flat without any deep development. The story jumped around. Antics of amateurs seemed unbelievable. The plot did not seem completely plausible.
I would not recommend this book.

This book was very very detailed. Knowing the outcome already it was not suspenseful even though the events could have led to the reader feeling suspense. It took me a longer time to read than usual because of the detailed accounts that were too frequently repeated. A timeline in the book might have helped the reader and a map showing the route of the train trip would have been helpful. What I did like was the glimpses it provided into Lincoln's character. The intimate details of the detectives activities made the story come alive. Learning about Pinkerton was interesting.

Lighthouse, island and characters become alive with detailed descriptions given us by the author, M.L. Stedman. Duty and love meet moral challenges with the clash of cymbals. This is a love story gone awry because of love itself.
I could not put the book down, not because like within a mystery one searches for the solution, but because there is no solution to this moral drama..but you are compelled to watch it -like a car wreck.