Chain Reading

Set in Amsterdam in the 1630s, this is the story of a wealthy merchant, Cornelis Sandvoort, and his beautiful, much-younger wife, Sophia. The merchant commissions an artist, Jan van Loos, to paint a portrait of the couple, and the wife and the artist embark on an affair. The story is supposed to be about betrayal, deception, greed, etc., but to me it read more like a silly romance novel. There wasn't enough depth of feeling on the main characters' parts for me to really care about their betrayals. The parts about the mad tulip bulb speculation of the time, however, was fascinating, as I'd known nothing about it. The author did a better job of describing the setting than she did the characters who inhabit it. The whole story seems to turn on a case of mistaken identity, which isn't really believable. The story of Maria, the Sandvoort's servant, is far more interesting than that of Cornelis, Sophia and Jan.

This was a quick, light read. Not objectionable, but not worth remembering for long.