The Amber Room is an awful book. Just awful. I forced myself to slog my way through to the end, and I was bored and glass-eyed through the whole process. The book is a far cry from the few others of Steve Berry's books I've read, which makes me wonder how he managed to get this one published first.

To sum up, The Amber Room is an overly complicated, arrogant tale about a search for just as the title says: the long-lost Amber Room once held in Russia's Catherine Palace. It was a marvelous treasure in Russia, and even Europeans loved it. But (still true story here), it was lost during World War II when Germans and Russians were at odds with each other, and their attempts to save, smuggle and destroy the room's amber panels were for naught. So the book begins with this narrative, about a mysterious history of the room, and it brings in two shallow ex-lovers (who, spoiler alert, find love again, shockingly) to find it all over again.

Paul and Rachel Cutler have absolutely no reason to be seeking the Amber Room. They only do on a wild hunch, but then for some reason they can't let go. The book feels like Berry tried impossibly hard to make a relevant connection from art history and adventure buffs like most of the characters, to a humdrum regular working class couple. I kept reading and reading, expecting that moment when my mind was going to be blown about why Paul and Rachel were involved, and why their pursuers were chasing after them so ardently. Nothing; it never came. I read on with disinterest at that point, just wanting to make it to the end. Even the final climactic scene was over so quickly that I was let down — all that reading, for that?

All of Steve Berry's books are fast-paced and action-packed, which is fine for people who are into that sort of thing. But that's about it. I didn't connect with the characters, I didn't know what was happening (unless it was explicitly spelled out in the book like it often was) and I felt confused and annoyed how characters who knew everything suddenly came in and out of the narrative. Overall, a boring read and one I won't be holding onto.

I loved this book. Lots of art and history, evil villains and intrigue.

The Amber Room was a part of the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo in Russia until the Germans looted it during World War II. The room was made completely of shades of amber and sculpted into rosettes, leaves and other decorations on all the walls. The furniture was also of amber. It has not been seen since the war.
Experts in finding stolen and lost art treasures are on the hunt for it and attorney, Rachel Cutler, would not have counted herself or her ex-husband, Paul, in that exploration until her father apparently was killed for what he knew. After that, it was discovered many of the people who may have known something about the whereabouts of the room had met untimely deaths.
This is an interesting take on the search for the Amber Room as a replica exists today in the Catherine Palace, but the original is gone. Anyone reading the book should be sure to read the Author's Note at the end and not stop with the end of his story.
This is Berry's first book and it is filled with history, intrigue and speculation as well as theories about what happened to one of the world's most famous lost treasures.

This is the first Steve Berry book that I read. He writes historical thrillers that lead the reader all over the world. He bases his main idea for the book in fact, and then takes a few liberties with the facts to make it a more readable story. Then at the end, he tells the reader what is true and what was made up. In this story, there are two sets of art thieves out to find some of the most expensive and beautiful art treasures in the world. Many were looted in WWII. The biggest prize is The Amber Room, a room made from Baltic amber and taken to St. Petersburg, Russia. After the war, nobody is sure what happened, although it was suspected that the amber was sold off bit by bit. In the book, the two main art thieves are playing cat and mouse with each other and trying to find this fabulous prize. Does someone have it hiding somewhere? You'll have to read the book to find out! The Amber Room has been since recreated, and you can see pictures of it on Flicker.com. It is indescrbably beautiful. I think you will enjoy Steve Berry's writing, since he has good, fast moving plotlines, and you can always learn a bit of history too!

The historical aspects are interesting, probably because I knew next to nothing about the Amber Room and the history surrounding it. It seems decently researched. The mystery in the plot is not predictable and kept me surprised. The problem is that all of the likeable characters are killed off quite quickly, leaving the overwhelming number who are not likeable. They're not even really believable in any way. Knoll is the worst. His depiction makes me wonder about Berry himself. Knoll is a psychopath, but he's written about almost affectionately, as if we are supposed to like him even though he is described as one who enjoys killing (it's not just part of his job) and is a rapist. It's very confusing and gross. The worst part of the novel is that the violence against women seems unusually detailed, protracted, and unbalanced when compared to violence depicted against men. The sexual violence in particular is way too detailed and drawn out to no purpose. Quite frankly, most of it is gratuitous. No thanks. Berry should have left that out and stuck to focusing on history. I've read several of his later novels and they don't have this disturbing element, so I suppose someone (thankfully) clued Berry in at some point.

L'histoire était plutôt sympa. Ce que je ne m'explique pas, c'est que l'auteur, en sa qualité d'avocat, ait pu imaginer l'écriture d'une scène dans laquelle la juge qui autorise le changement de nom d'un homme...n'est autre que la fille de l'homme en question. Un conflit d'intérêts aussi flagrant est IM-POS-SIBLE devant une cour de justice. Et ce n'est pas la seule impasse juridique de ce bouquin, seulement la plus flagrante. Surprenant, de la part d'un auteur qui est avocat...

Sur base d'un fait historique, un cadeau, une chambre d'ambre, du roi de Prusse au tsar, qui la donna à sa femme Catherine, une fresque romanesque où les assassinats se collectionnent. Initiés par quelques collectionneurs milliardaires gangsters que ne rebute aucun crime pour enrichir leurs collections. Violent. On meurt peu dans son lit dans ce roman. Beaucoup de liberté avec l'Histoire, mais toujours proche de la réalité. Affrontement insolite entre ces milliardaires et leurs tueurs sans scrupule et un couple d'Américains paisibles, une juge et un avocat, immergés par hasard dans l'aventure périlleuse. Rocambolesque, fort délassant, mouvements (violents) de bout en bout et une touche d'humour et d'impossible pour enrober toutes ces horreurs.

THE AMBER ROOM – G
Steve Berry – 1st book
When Judge Rachel Cutler's father dies under suspicious circumstances, he leaves his daughter tantalizing clues to a decades-old secret: the Amber Room, an exquisite treasure that, so the legend goes, was appropriated by the Nazis when they invaded the Soviet Union. Now, to find out why her father died, and who's responsible, Rachel (with her ex-husband, Paul) heads off to Germany, where she hopes to find the truth about the Amber Room.

While no “DeVinci Code” and I occasionally found Rachel a bit TSTL, which was unfortunately necessary to further the plot, this was an exciting, body-laden, action-driven story. Although I would have preferred a different ending and doubt this author will make my “must read” list, it kept me entertained.

What I liked-
I like that Steve Berry chooses real mysteries for his stories and that he weaves history and facts into the dialogue. I like at the end of each books he tells you what is fact and fiction.

What I didn’t like:
I don’t like the swearing, the crudeness and the objectivity of women.

Maybe this writer has gotten better over the years. I’ve read several others- but I may not read anymore.

Historical fiction about famous room stolen by or hidden from Nazis during WWII...

This tome would probably not usually darkened our "to read" list were it not for the intervention of a friend who enjoyed Berry's pseudo history of the Russian panels destined to be part of the Nazi looting -- we believe the amber panels remain undiscovered to this day. Along the way, we get Americans rambling around Europe trying to solve a loosely connected death, while meantime two arch enemies in the antigue art business steal most of the scenes as more interesting than the nominal protagonists.

While we suspect the intent here, ala the Da Vinci Code, was to take one historical puzzle and surround it with plenty of fiction to captivate the audience, about the best we can say is that we got through it -- our indifference at the end a good indicator of our enjoyment or lack thereof.

এর চেয়ে ভাল শুরু আর হতে পারে না কোন একটা বই এর জন্য। ২য় বিশ্ব যুদ্ধের সময়ের বন্দীশিবির, বন্দীদের নির্যাতন তথ্য আদায়ের জন্য। এক্কেবারে যাকে বলে সলিড স্টার্ট।
কিন্তু তারপরেই খেই হারাতে শুরু করে বই এর কাহিনী। আস্তে আস্তে বইএর নায়ক নায়িকাদের পরিচয় করিয়ে দেওয়া হতে থাকে। বাড়তে থাকে নতুন নতুন চরিত্রের উপস্থিতি।
ঘটনা মূলত অ্যাম্বার রুম কে নিয়ে। কি এই অ্যাম্বার রুম? অ্যাম্বার কাঠের মূরাল দিয়ে তৈরি এই রুম। দেখলে মনে হবে সূর্যের মাঝে দাঁড়িয়ে আছেন আপনি যাস্ট উত্তাপহীন সূর্য। লুট হয়ে যায় ২য় বিশ্ব যুদ্ধের সময় হিটলারের দ্বারা।
২য় বিশ্ব যুদ্ধের ডামা ডলে যখন হিটলার সময় শেষের দিকে তখন সব লুট করা সম্পদের মাঝে এটাকেও লুকিয়ে ফেলা হয় মাটির নিচে, খনির ভল্টে। পরে অনেক খুজেও পাওয়া যায় নি অ্যাম্বার রুম অথবা এর কোন হাদিস। সবাই ভেবেছিল হারিয়ে গিয়েছে কিংবা নষ্ট হয়ে গিয়েছে পুরাপুরি।
কিন্তু কেনই বাঁ একের পর এক মানুষ মারা যাচ্ছে যারা খোজে নামছে অ্যাম্বার রুমের? কিই বাঁ রহস্য একে ঘিরে?

পাঠমন্তব্যঃ ট্রেজার হান্টিং টাইপের বই, থ্রিলার বললে ভুল হবে, কারন থ্রিল খুব কম। অনুবাদের অবস্থা যথেষ্ট খারাপ। অনেকটা আক্ষরিক অনুবাদ হলে যা হয় আর কি।
রেটিং আমার পক্ষ থেকেঃ ৩.৭৫/৫

the quest for lost or stolen art did not quite grab me by the throat, but the ending is the most satisfying i've read in recent months

p47: named changed to karl bates.