The Swan Thieves

I was with this book until the end. I felt the truth of creative obsession - especially after reading The Monsters. I felt the truth of obsessive love - again, especially after reading The Monsters. I could almost smell the linseed oil and paint and wanted to buy canvas and oils and an easel - I wanted to paint, to feel the pull of repeating what I saw in my own colors and light.
But the final "cure" of the painter, Robert Oliver, was too pat, too obvious, too easy. That's not how it really happens. I know. I've worked with patients like Oliver - silent, moody, cyclical in their psychopathy.That's when Kostova lost me. She had me for almost 600 pages and then she lost me.
And I'd also had the center issue figured out before it was revealed.
Because that's how I would have written it.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to be a writer-reader.