Many thanks to NetGalley and to Storm Publishing for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of The Pearl Thief by Fiona McIntosh.
This is my first introduction to Fiona McIntosh, and I’d seen and heard some great things, both about the book and the author. With all the noise going on, I was looking forward to a romping good read.
It is 1963 and the very private and secretive Severine Kassel is on secondment from the Louvre in Paris to the British Museum in London. When an unusual set of Byzantine pearls is loaned to the museum, the walls she’s built around herself come crashing down, and we’re whisked back to 1930s Czechoslovakia and the Nazi pogrom in that area.
This had the makings of a massive story for me, and one I was very interested to read about. To say I was disappointed is a slight understatement. While the storyline itself is very good, the execution is poor.
I found myself questioning whether some of the facts were correct. And a lot of the language used didn’t ring true for me. It was as though the story had been written in English, translated to French, then translated back to English again.
There was far too much info dump in far too many places, to the extent that I was skipping pages at a time. It felt like the author had done her research, or had paid someone to do her research, and wanted to squeeze it all in to get her money’s worth, at the expense of captivating and keeping hold of the reader.
I had absolutely no empathy whatsoever for the main character, who seemed rather full of herself. Apparently every man she ever came into contact with fell in love with her on sight.
And it seems that the only thing people ever ate in 1963 was soup.
The locations played a big part in the story. And while I did find myself questioning the historical accuracy of the locations, I did enjoy visiting Paris and London. Only the Yorkshire connection didn’t ring quite true to me. Especially for someone who was apparently running away.
It’s a big book and a big story. I just think more could have been done by both the author and the publisher. It was badly in need of a good edit and a thorough proofread. Saying that, I won’t let it put me off trying another book by the same author.
Three stars.
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