Girl in Hyacinth Blue

This was a fascinating trip back through time, via the history of a painting believed by its current owner to be a Vermeer. Yes, you can't help but compare it to Girl With A Pearl Earring, but it is different. More detailed and broader in its scope. I couldn't help but notice that some of the chapters had been previously published as short stories, which I thought to be an interesting way to develop a novel.

It makes sense; as you study different periods of history, you have a different focus, find details for each story that can help set each chapter apart on its own, yet allow it to become part of a whole. History is like that.