Play Book Tag discussion

This was an interesting story, with a twist at the end that greatly improved it for me. Isabel is a cold, repressed, and frankly unlikeable woman in her 30s who lives in a house in the countryside outside Amsterdam in 1961. There’s a sense of mystery around the house: how did the family come to live there? Where did the furnishings come from? Her parents are both dead and she and her two brothers are not especially close, although they meet for meals from time to time. The younger brother, Hendrik, is gay and left the family as a teen because of the way their mother treated him. Isabel has not forgiven him for leaving. The elder, Louis, who owns the house, is a womanizer. The story opens when he brings Eva, his latest conquest to a family dinner. Isabel dislikes her and, being Isabel, is more than a little rude. But when Louis has to travel, Isabel ends up letting Eva live with her temporarily. Household objects go missing but I won’t say more to avoid spoiling the story. This book got some very good reviews and indeed, there are many impressive descriptions. The mystery deepens intriguingly as the book progresses. The author does an impressive job developing the characters but I simply did not like any of them. The twist at the end redeemed it, so I’ll round up to a 4.