The Tulip Virus
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In 1636 Holland, Wouter Winckel's brutally slaughtered body is found in the barroom of his inn, an anti-religious pamphlet stuffed in his mouth. Winckel was a respected tulip-trader and owned the most beautiful collection of tulips in the United Republic of the Low Countries, including the most coveted and expensive bulb of them all, the Semper Augustus. But why did he have to die - and who wanted him dead?
In 2007 London, history seems to be repeating itself. Dutchman Frank Schoeller is found in his home by his nephew, Alec. Just before he dies he points Alec to a rare 17th-century book about tulips, obviously a clue to his murder. With the help of his friend Damien Vanlint, an antique dealer from Amsterdam, Alec sets out to solve the mystery, but soon realizes that his investigations have put his own life, and those of his friends in danger.
The Tulip Virus is an international bestseller: Perfume meets The Da Vinci Code in this gripping story of greed, pride, arrogance and murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Holland's 17th-century tulip craze provides the backdrop for Hermans's middling debut. When British painter Alec Schoeller receives a phone call for help from his beloved paternal uncle, Frank, he rushes over to his uncle's London house, where he finds his battered relative on the brink of death. Frank warns his nephew not to contact the police and to take a 400-year-old book about tulips. While the artist does report the crime to the authorities, he pretends his uncle died before he reached the house, and seeks the truth behind the killing on his own. The present-day action alternates with scenes from 1636 Holland, where tulip mania led to bloodshed. Hermans hits all the obligatory suspense notes, including multiple murders, hostage situations, and a secret men will kill to preserve, but U.S. readers will find nothing particularly new other than the tulip angle.
