Simone van der Vlugt

Sabine has been off work for a year due to Depression and as the book opens she is returning to her work at a bank for half-days only. During her absence a woman called Renee seems to have taken over the small office and she makes it clear that she is now in charge and Sabine will have to do exactly as she says. At the same time as she is coping with this situation Sabine is starting to remember events from when she was a teenager and her classmate Isabel disappeared, seemingly show more forever.

Sabine is a very well drawn character. As a young teenager she is realistically shown as the victim of bullying and ostracism and as a troubled young woman she is also depicted very naturally. Both the way her struggle to deal with Depression is shown as a daily hurdle rather than something which can be forever banished and the fragmented way her memory of the traumatic period from her earlier days returns both had a particularly credible feel to them for me. I felt everything from empathy (for the office bullying) to annoyance (because she didn’t change her locks immediately her odd boyfriend started displaying his true nature) for Sabine and it’s always a sign of good characterisation when I am engaged in this way. There are solid minor characters too including Olaf, the aforementioned odd boyfriend, and Renee, the office bully (who I failed to feel much for when something horrid happened to her).

The novel really is full of suspense. The events that surrounded Isabel’s disappearance are slowly revealed over the course of the story but at each turn a potential new culprit comes to light. What did the creepy school caretaker have to do with the disappearance? Which of the many boys who lusted after Isabel played a role? Robin, Sabine’s much-loved older brother? Bart her own teenage boyfriend who kept their relationship a secret? Or perhaps Olaf, Sabine’s current boyfriend who is reluctant to talk of his own link to Isabel? Although she now lives in Amsterdam Sabine keeps returning to the small town where she grew up in an effort to help the memories that she has locked away to resurface so there is a constant juxtaposition between the present and the past which helps to flesh the story out.

I did think perhaps the author was trying a little too hard to misdirect readers down a particular line of reasoning. This perversely made me guess the real ending relatively early on in one of those ‘if she wants me to think A then the real solution can only be B’ thought processes that I sometimes have when reading crime fiction. I also found myself wondering at several loose ends left at the end of the book, including what might have become of all the other missing girls that Sabine uncovers in her search for the truth surrounding Isabel’s disappearance.

However the novel has much to commend it, not least its very reasonable length, its sensitive translation by a new (to me) translator Michele Hutchison, the fact it is a standalone novel, its excellent characters and the very satisfactory build-up of suspense that kept me up late one night. I am looking forward to reading Simone van der Vlugt’s next novel Shadow Sister (due to be published in English in December this year). show less

Well written, informed popular history book on some of the more influential members of the Bicker family in the 16th and 17th century in Amsterdam and The Hague. Van der Vlugt relates a gender balanced history which is a mix between the big picture and day-to-day life of some of the wealthiest tradesmen, mayors and wives of the Amsterdam elite family of the Bickers. The second part of her story focuses mainly on Wendela Bicker(s) and her the Hague based husband Johan de Witt, who was the show more most powerful man in the Dutch republic between 1650 and 1672, when he was assassinated by the mob. There is a lot to learn from van der Vlugt’s book about such wide-ranging issues as religious strife, family life in the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic (with interesting tit bits about doll houses, birth, marital court cases, Sinterklaas, ice skating and the pest). The bit about the foreign (sea-borne) trade of Amsterdam merchants and regents and their wealth making strategies is unfortunately underplayed. Still van der Vlugt displays surprising agility in dealing with different sources (personal letters, court proceedings, and secondary literature on major historical events and buildings). A joy to read. show less

The high point of my artistic career is a self-portrait, drawn in marker, and forever captured on a melamine plate from pre-school more than four decades ago. I was so advanced for my age I even remembered to give myself eyelashes. If that’s not long-lasting genius and a genuine artistic legacy, I don’t know what is. It may not be the Mona Lisa but surely it’s up there with beautiful ceramics like Chinese porcelain and Delftware. OK, maybe not; my talent may not be one for the ages but show more we do know how it developed (or didn’t). We don’t actually know which potter came up with the idea for Delft Blue, just that it was a cheaper but incredibly popular alternative to Chinese porcelain and came to prominence in the 1650s. Simone van der Vlugt has written a fictional beginning for the rise of these blue and white decorative pieces, assigning the inspiration for the pottery to an artistic, young widow from a rural Dutch village in the novel, Midnight Blue.

Catrin Barentsdochter endured much in her brief marriage: the premature birth and death of her baby and terrible abuse from her husband. She’s not sorry he’s dead only a year into their life together and after selling her inheritance from him, she leaves her family and the small village of De Rijp behind for a housekeeper position in a larger town nearby. When that falls through, she ends up going to Amsterdam and it is there that her artistic talent is accidentally discovered. The past she's fleeing catches up with her though and she runs even farther, ending up working at a pottery owned by the brother of her previous employer. Not only is Catrin a good painter, she is innovative and astute, suggesting to her kindly boss that they try to mimic the blue and white pieces of Chinese porcelain that are all the rage. And so Delft Blue is born. But Catrin’s past won’t stay away and her life and the revelation of her huge secret is threatened again.

Van der Vlugt weaves pivotal and fascinating Delft history in with her story of this determined young woman, credibly placing Catrin near the gunpowder explosion and fire that destroyed much of Delft in 1654 and in the midst of the rampaging plague epidemic of 1655. The details of pottery making included here are not extensive but are incredibly interesting nonetheless. Catrin is a practical and generally strong character although occasionally her actions and language seem anachronistic for a woman in the 1650s. Whether that is a function of the author’s writing or of the translation is hard to tell. The secondary characters are fairly one dimensional and the ending is quite neat and convenient given the reality and fragility of life at the time. There is a romance that feels rather rushed and could have used elaboration but even as it stands, it does drive the story forward and figures into Catrin’s decisions several times. Fans of historical fiction will find this an easy, fast, and generally engaging read set at a time and a place not often found in English language works and they might even be inspired to learn a little more about the actual pottery and of Delft’s place in the Dutch Golden Age. show less

This was interesting and quick read, but a bit melodramatic. There were also some serious historical inaccuracies, with multiple mentions of a cathedral in Alkmaar (this could have been a poor translation) and public Catholic worship, neither of which existed in the Protestant Dutch Republic, a pretty important and well-known aspect of Dutch 17th-century history. Likewise, when the main character arrives in Amsterdam, she mentions the wooden town hall, but that had very famously and show more spectacularly burned down a few years earlier than the events in the book, and the new and massive stone town hall was largely complete, and probably by this point already the most famous building in the Dutch Republic. A bigger problem, because it pertains to the story, is the author’s discussion of the necessity of guild membership to practice pottery decoration (correct), and yet suddenly that is totally ignored in order for the main action of the story to take place. It makes no sense. show less