This is the third book I’ve read in the series and I loved it just as much as the others. I almost hesitate to call this a series because each book has different characters. It also means you can definitely pick up any book in the series and not feel lost. I was intrigued by this story from the start. Many treasures were lost in WWII and this book not only involves one but is about a student following her dream. I highly recommend this book if you love lost treasures, strong women, and an exciting journey into history.

I enjoyed this book because it tackled some issues that are of great interest to me: multicultural and multiracial families, life in academia, and travel. I don't know much about art, but I was willing to learn. Graduate student Clarissa (the child of a Filipino father and a White mother) is floored by a headline in an art newspaper and suddenly finds the direction she wants to take for her MA thesis. Her academic supervisor puts her in touch with a someone who could offer more advice on illuminated manuscripts, and he turns out to be Nathan Adler, a person she and her brother had traveled with in Europe several years earlier. The story unfolds as Clarissa and Nathan try to prove that the manuscripts had been stolen after WWII and find out who had taken them. We also learn of the complicated and different upbringing she and her brother had had and what had happened that ended the three young people's friendship before.

This book had great potential. I was intrigued by the idea of American soldiers looting art and other antiquities at the end of WWII in light of what is known about the Nazi and Russian theft. Also, stories about the search for home and self-identity is always intriguing. But for me, this book failed in every area: plot, character development, structure, dialogue. So disappointed.

The protagonist Clarissa is a child of a Filipino diplomat and mid-western American mother, who has lived in many countries but doesn’t feel at home anywhere. As the book opens, she is a graduate student living in California where she was born. Estranged from her parents, her brother who she didn’t grow up with lives nearby. Everything about Clarissa shows she has little confidence, is awkward in interpersonal relations, and because of her insecurities, puts everything into her work.

The main storyline is about tracking down two valuable illuminated manuscripts stolen from a German church. This resonates for Clarissa because she has drawn a line between the childhood picture books of her past and these manuscripts. If and when she finds them, they will be her thesis subject.

Before coming to California, Clarissa and her brother, Arthur, spent time in Paris with a man named Nathan who of all people becomes Clarissa’s advisor and partner in the search for the manuscripts. Clarissa didn’t hit it off with Nathan then and is very awkward with him now.

There are pages of Clarissa’s musings of how she reads a situation and as the book goes on, there is little growth in her. Show don’t tell did not apply here.

Structurally, I don’t understand why the thief is revealed in the first chapter. It would have been so much more compelling if the reader was surprised that it was in fact an American soldier who did the deed. As an aside, he was the most interesting and well-developed character of the lot.

The amazing ease which they discovered clues was also not believable. A day here, two days there amongst all Clarissa’s repetitive thoughts. And the end, which I won’t spoil, was hard to believe despite knowing we were being led there.

This is the sixth of a series that I don’t know anything about. Perhaps, if I had read the other, this might have been a more palatable read.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I don't know anything about art or the art world, so learning about ancient manuscripts and valuation and art theft was very interesting. I appreciated the juxtaposition of a protagonist who is very knowledgeable about a niche topic that most people know nothing about, but is also very naive about real life and not yet jaded/cynical.