We are so grateful to Tony Wheeler (co-founder of Lonely Planet) for blurbing The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure and now for reviewing it on his blog, Tony Wheeler’s Travels. “The Vrouw Maria was of no great size, less than 30 metres in length, and of no great importance, just a two-masted wooden cargo ship. But what […]
Category: Reviews
Review on Shelf Awareness
“The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure reads almost like a fiction as Easter and Vorhees explore the lives of the many figures involved in the historical shipwreck, as well as the modern oligarchs and academics battling in the courts for the right to the treasure. Readers of historical fiction, true crime or history books are all sure to […]
Smithsonian Magazine’s Books to Read
The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure is one of Smithsonian Magazine’s “Books to Read” in September! “By the end of her reign, Catherine the Great had acquired more than 4,000 paintings, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems, 16,000 coins and medals, and 10,000 drawings. But as writers Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees point out in The Tsarina’s Lost Treasure, this collection—which later formed the foundation of […]
Can’t Get Enough Catherine
Seemingly, lovers of history and devotees of pop culture can’t get enough of Catherine the Great. As evidence, three popular television documentaries/series have come out in recent years. Ekaterina is a Russia-1 historical television series from 2015 (now available on Amazon) about the rise of Catherine the Great. Last year, HBO produced Catherine the Great, […]
Review on GoodReads
Our first review on GoodReads! Four stars! “THE TSARINA’S LOST TREASURE is a delightful mix of: the life of Gerrit Dou, one of Rembrandt’s star pupils, Dou’s most famous painting which Catherine the Great tried to acquire, and the shipwreck of the Vrouw Maria, which condemned Dou’s art to the bottom of the Baltic Sea […]
Booklist Review
“What defines a treasure, and who controls its fate? Easter and Vorhees expertly weave the story of the ship and the painting into history. They plumb the two decades of drama that followed The Nursery’s rediscovery to combine important questions about the value of art and culture and the meaning of heritage and to create an […]
Publisher’s Weekly Review
“Wide-ranging and meticulously researched. Easter and Vorhees braid the various threads of the story together and make a persuasive case. Readers will covet this intriguing portrait of an art world mystery.” Read the full Publisher’s Weekly review…
Kirkus Review
“An apprentice to Rembrandt, Gerritt Dou eventually surpassed his teacher in fame and wealth. Over the centuries, however, Dou’s reputation has shifted repeatedly with the tides of fashion in the arts. His story makes up one strand of this engaging new book by Easter and Vorhees. An intriguing narrative, and an entertaining yarn whose ending […]
Praise for the Tsarina’s Lost Treasure
“Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees skillfully weave the shipwreck of the Vrouw Maria and its secret cargo with the lives of Dutch Golden Age painter Gerrit Dou and Russia’s art-loving Catherine the Great. The high stakes search for the tsarina’s lost treasure, 18th century and modern, reads like a detective story. A true delight for fans of […]