The Engraver’s Secret
This dual-timeline novel has its roots in a feud between the Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, and his principal engraver, Lucas Vorsterman. Canadian Charlotte Hubert is a modern Rubens scholar who gains a research position in Rubens’ home city of Antwerp. Antonia is the engraver’s only daughter who hopes to become an artist in her own right as she witnesses her father’s fall from grace.
Charlotte is excited by the discovery of a map folio containing clues that could lead to some missing Rubens engravings that would be worth millions. But her explorations are hampered by her personal anxiety issues and the shock discovery that a faculty member is her father. Then there are sinister undercurrents in the university with assaults, break-ins, and “…talk of academic theft floating around campus like an invisible cloud of poisonous gas.” As Charlotte and her co-worker Miles investigate further, they are drawn into a complicated web of riddles and betrayal.
The historical aspects featuring Antonia display excellent research on the competitive artistic life and politics in 17th-century Antwerp and London. The suspenseful contemporary storyline has echoes of Dan Brown-type novels in its twists and turns with cryptic messages in art and mysterious members of a religious order.
Antonia is spirited and principled, but her ambition to become a recognised cartographer is thwarted by her sex and her father’s misdemeanours. Charlotte’s misdirected anger and suspicious nature often threaten to derail her as she ventures into risky situations. Although four centuries apart in time, the warning words of Charlotte’s mother can be applied to both women. “You’ve entered a highly competitive, male-dominated field. So be careful who you trust.”
An innovative debut novel that should gain many fans and may encourage interest in more historical fiction set in the often-neglected 17th century.
