While imprisoned in a concentration camp during World War II, Karol Borya first hears reference to the Amber Room, which went missing in 1945. He searched for it as a treasure hunter for Russia’s Extraordinary Commission, but by the time the old man is murdered at the age of 83, his only interest in the missing Russian treasure is a few newspaper articles. Borya’s daughter Rachel is prodded to ignore his advice to stay away from the Amber Room when his “accidental” death seems suspicious, so she is soon on her way to Germany to interview an old friend of his. Little does Rachel know that she’s got two rival professional killers on her tail, and she isn’t much safer when she is joined unexpectedly by her ex-husband Paul. Together, they unravel the secrets of the long missing Amber Room, while dodging danger from their adversaries every step of the way. Though the protagonists were far too trusting and clueless and the bad guys were far too invincible, somehow everything fell into place and everyone got what they deserved in the end.

This was a fairly well written novel with many different points of view to liven up the story. My only complaints are that a lawyer and a judge were far too naïve and trusting, particularly of people they’ve just met, despite suspecting that Rachel’s father may have been murdered. The bad guys, on the other hand, were extremely sophisticated and savvy, not to mention well-funded, and none of them was terribly unusual for a villain. The plot was also not terribly original, and everything wrapped up almost too neatly in the end, but the action does keep moving, and places are described in a way that transported me there. In all, this was a satisfying thriller playing on a real-life unsolved mystery. The Amber Room is worth the read.

Really got caught up in this book. I already had an interest in the Amber Room and a long time ago had been at the palace where the room had been. There were pictures there of what it had looked like. I liked the way the book took historical facts and then turned them into a suspenseful read. It didn't hurt that I am from Atlanta (where the story starts) and have been to most of the areas that were in the book. It was also fascinating that last Tuesday there was an article in the newspaper about a dig beginning in Poland looking for the Nazi gold.

Although the plot about Nazi-looted art treasures is tired, the author is adept at constructing a thrilling pursuit.

Awful! It reads like a made for prime-time television movie. The story had potential but the muses gave it to the wrong writer. Skip this one.

I wanted to like this book SO MUCH. I wanted to find a well-published author in the vein of Robert Galbraith and Tana French, whose stories are full of believable yet intriguing characters and subtle plot points that become major pieces of the final reckonings. I wanted the blurb on the front, attributed to Dan Brown- about action-packed exotic locales et al - to be true.

Alas.

Instead of anything resembling readable prose, we have choppy writing, appalling-to-non-existent sentence structure, and incomprehensible word choice, among other sins. A string of nouns is not a sentence, even when you use a capital letter for the first word and put a period at the end. Word selection, particularly in the Verb Department, feels as though the author chose an appropriate verb that didn’t quite dazzle, so consulted a thesaurus and went with the second runner-up. Most disconcerting, though, is that the entire book reads as if multiple people wrote it - one author for lengthy, flowery scene descriptions, one for action sequences comprised of staccato bursts of nouns and very few verbs, and one for passages about real or imaginary works of art that smack of affected academia and too many conflicting Google searches on subjects about which the writer knows just enough to be unconsciously incompetent.

Adding gratuitous insult to mortal grammatical injury are the characters and plot themselves. To save you, Dear Reader, the time it would take to fully explore the depths of vapidity into which both actors and script sink, suffice to say that the good guys are okay and the bad guys very conveniently kill each other and the eponymous Amber Room is unveiled in the most banal way possible, except for maybe a chase scene involving a butler and a wayward yet lovable cocker spaniel, which on balance might have been both more entertaining and more believable.

Last and somehow actually least is the thinly veiled misogynistic attitude of the author. Every woman who gets more than three mentions and has an original thought is a “bitch”, and every woman who gets an iota of attention from any man (for any reason) is eventually assessed on fuckability. I’ve never read the word “crotch” so many times in the rest of my life combined. All the sex scenes - and there are a surprisingly large number of them - seem to have been written by a stodgy literature professor who understands that his story will benefit from the inclusion of erotica, but is wildly unsure just what acts might be involved or how to go about researching them, and is far too civilized (read: embarrassed) to ask for even a nudge in the direction of something he might inadvertently plagiarize. Thus, we get a plethora of breast fondling and crotch references.

TL;DR: 1 Star ⭐️ , no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

I normally don’t abandon books but this was a little too dry for me. I want to know if they find the amber room but the story just isn’t my style. Ready to move on to a new book.

This is a stand alone by Steve Berry. The man writes a captivating, punchy, fast paced story that just grabs you and doesn't let you go. I found the Amber room itself so intriguing that until I finished the novel and had time to think, I didn't stop to think what was real and what wasn't. Luckily Berry does that for you after the story ends! I was amazed at what was true and what was fanciful in this story, he writes that well. I even found the bad guy likeable.

Very unique writing

This was a good WWII novel. There was a lot of good history and information about how art was stolen by the Nazi's and how that was all handled. I'm not sure if the Amber Room really existed or not, but the book certainly made it seem that way.

It was also a good all around mystery as well. An unlikely couple end up solving the mystery. :)

"Sexy, illuminating, and confident. THE AMBER ROOM is my kind of thriller--a globe-trotting treasure hunt packed with exotic locales, sumptuous art, and ruthless villains. Steve Berry writes with the self-assured style of a veteran." --DAN BROWN, Author of The Da Vinci Code

Forged of the exquisite gem, the Amber Room is one of the greatest treasures ever made by man--and the subject of one of history’s most intriguing mysteries. German troops invading the Soviet Union seized the Room in 1941. When the Allies bombed, the Room was hidden, and it has never been seen since. But now, the hunt has begun once more.

Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler loves her job and her kids, and remains civil to her ex-husband, Paul. But everything changes when her father dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind clues to a secret about something called the Amber Room. Desperate for the truth, Rachel takes off for Germany with Paul close behind. Before long, they’re in over their heads. Locked into a treacherous game with professional killers, Rachel and Paul find themselves on a collision course with the forces of greed, power, and history itself.

The first thing I noticed when I read this book was: Bad translation.

Ok, it might not be fair in the first place since I read the Indonesian translation out of the original work in English and most translated books didn’t quite get the original “essence” of the story. This one, it’s just not bad, it’s crap. I wonder how did these book translators / editors work anyway? Were they blind to start with since there were so many misspelled words and unproper translated words in there?
But hey, let’s move on to the story.

It’s solid enough to begin with – this book has chosen the Indiana Jones + Romancing the Stone path although not on the same (story) level. The book is trying to combine the history from the World War II with treasure hunt of priceless art called “The Amber Room”. The room itself existed once since it decorated a king’s work room and later a princess’ study room and it was lost forever after the Nazi (Hitler) seized the amber panels and shipped it to an unknown place (pardon me if I don’t get the facts correct).

Since the room is completely lost in the real history, a treasure hunt ala Indiana Jones is always easy to develop from here. Rachel Cutler, a mom of two, a judge and a daughter of an old Belarus immigrant went to Germany to hunt the treasure herself after she found her father murdered by a German hunk who turned out to be a criminal treasure hunter.

This book could have been interesting, if it was written by someone like Dan Brown, for example – although his latest book “The Lost Symbol” wasn’t that impressive either. It’s just a shame, a thriller and best-seller material failed to create a BANG.

But at least it made me google about the “Amber Room”, so maybe that’s the author’s original purpose? We never know ;)

At the beginning this book was a tad confusing. So many characters from different parts of the world. Once I understood the characters I couldn’t put this book down. Highly recommend to anyone that enjoys historical fiction.