The Amber Room (Hardcover)

by Steve Berry (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
First-time novelist Berry weighs in with a hefty thriller that's long on interesting research but short on thrills. Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler and ex-husband Paul are divorced but still care for each other. Rachel's father, Karol Borya, knows secrets about the famed Amber Room, a massive set of intricately carved panels crafted from the precious substance and looted by Nazis during WWII from Russia's Catherine Palace. The disappearance of the panels, which together formed a room, remains one of the world's greatest unsolved art mysteries. Borya's secret gets him killed as two European industrialists/art collectors go head to head in a deadly race to find the fabled room. Searching for Borya's killer, Rachel and Paul bumble their way to Europe, where their naivet‚ triggers more deaths. Berry has obviously done his homework, and he seems determined to find a place for every fact he's unearthed. The plot slows for descriptions of various art pieces, lectures and long internal monologues in which characters examine their innermost feelings and motives in minute detail, while also packing in plenty of sex and an abundance of brutal killings. A final confrontation between all the principals ends in a looming Bavarian castle where Rachel is raped. All the right elements are in place, but the book is far too long and not as exciting as the ingredients suggest. Readers may end up wishing Berry had written a nonfiction account of the fascinating story of the Amber Room and skipped the fictional mayhem.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Give this man credit: whereas most lawyers who decide to write a novel stay fairly close to home, Berry, a Georgia trial attorney, wanders far off the beaten path. Although his debut novel features a trial judge as its central character and opens with a pretty typical courtroom scene, it soon steps outside the courtroom--way outside. 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. Based loosely, very loosely, on certain historical events, the novel is plotted cleverly and written with style and substance. A welcome change from the usual legal-thriller fare from wanna-be Turows. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345460030
• ISBN-13: 978-0345460035
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #166,196 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining..., December 11, 2004

By	Jen "just keep reading!" (Costa Mesa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I'm a bit puzzled at all of the negative reviews of this book. It kept my interest and it's entertaining for what it is. The Nazi round up of art is an interesting topic, and I'm glad to see it touched upon in fiction. I'd never heard of the amber room, and I learned enough to make me search out more information. Granted, the writing is not exactly Dickens, but when I want to read Great Literature, I read the Greats.

People have a tendency to want to group novels rather than to take each story on its own merits. I've seen this book compared to "The DaVinci Code". I recognize the comparison, since its a mystery/thriller set in the art world, but that's where the similarities end. If you liked "The DaVinci Code," you might like this book, but if you're someone who has the need to compare everything and rank preferences, I can't say which is "better".

If I were required to complain about something, it might be that the bad guys (as in many stories) are more interesting than the good guys. I really didn't care too much about what happened to the protagonists, but I did find myself intrigued by the cat and mouse game played by the acquisitors. The concept of a group of Europeans sending operatives all over the world to obtain treasures that have already been stolen is intriguing. I'd like to see it explored further. Maybe in a future Berry book.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Weaving real history into a fiction thriller..., July 11, 2006

By	Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Amber Room: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Steve Berry weaves a fictional thriller around the true saga of the famous Russian Amber Room, and provides a real treat for his readers.

Originally in the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, the Amber Room was a true wonder. The wall panels were made of amber, pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. During World War II, German soldiers made off with the panels and the decorative items inside (also made of amber). They have never been discovered, and their disappearance remains one of the great mysteries of the war.

Rachael Cutler is a judge in Atlanta, Georgia and her father, Karol Borya, was originally part of a Soviet group trying to find the Amber Room and other antiquities stolen by the Nazi's during the war. When her father dies under suspicious circumstances, he leaves her clues about the location of the Amber Room. Unfortunately, two unsavory characters are also involved in the search. Suzanne Danzer and Christian Knoll are "Acquisitors" who work for entrepreneurs who belong to a group called Retrievers of Lost Antiquities. The nine men who make up this group accumulate stolen treasures (with the help of their Acquisitors) for their private collections. Rachael and her ex-husband, Paul, take off for Germany to follow leads left by Borya. Unfortunately, Knoll and Danzer are following close behind, leaving many dead bodies in their wake. How this story plays out will have you quickly turning pages.

I like stories with Russian themes and also, books that weave true events into the story. Berry gives the reader both in The Amber Room. The history of the Amber Room is a fascinating one, as is the story of amber itself. Berry also gives us some history on the plundering of art by the Nazi's throughout Europe. With any thriller, you have to expect some liberties with the true story, as well as some incredulity. Berry gives us some of both, although I'm not sure I like the revisionist history at the end. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed The Amber Room and thought it was even better than The Romanov Prophecy.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Idea, Unbelievably Bad Execution, September 7, 2005

By	N. B. Nieto "Page-turning thrill seeker" (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Amber Room: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Like many, I was (and remain) intrigued by the mystery of the Amber Room, but even that premise could not get me through this tedious, poorly-written "thriller." My disappointment has nothing to do with comparisons with the DaVinci Code. This book stinks entirely on its own merits.

First, and foremost, let's start with the characters. Either Steve Berry has never met a woman, or he's never met a woman he liked. In his book, they're all ball-breaking bitches. The only difference between the "heroine" and the villianess is which side of the law they happen to be on. Also, the heroine acts in ways which are unbelieveably stupid. For example, she suspects foul play in the death of her father and believes the Amber Room has something to do with it. In the next minute, she tells a total stranger everything he could ever want to know about the Amber Room, and worse yet, goes off with this total stranger in the middle of Europe to an abandoned mine in the mountains without telling anyone her whereabouts? And this woman is a Judge?!?! Ooookay. The husband does almost the same thing, showing every single letter related to the Amber Room to some random woman he's known for about 5 minutes. I hope this lawyer never practices anywhere near me!

And the villians? The villians are a shade or two slightly more interesting than the main protagonists, but their actions are too stupid to be believed. They want to find the Amber Room, right? They find the only two living people in the world who might know its whereabouts and what do they do almost immediately? That's right, kill them! Of course! That makes perfect sense. Or, you know, they might've maybe held them and tortured them for information. Just a little suggestion.

The plot is what it is, but even Green Eggs and Ham had more twists than this one did. And to add insult to injury, the writing style was just so unimaginative, dry, and choppy, with paragraph after paragraph of tedious descriptions of surroundings.

If it's been awhile since you've seen the back of your brain, give the Amber Room a read, because surely you will be rolling your eyes very far back into your head every other page or so.