It’s 1963, and Severine Kassel has been asked by the Louvre to help the British Museum curate its antique jewellery – her specialty. Distant and mysterious, Severine remains an enigma to her London colleagues, who are in awe of her cool beauty and 
seemingly effortless success. What they don’t know is that Severine is not all she seems – under her chic exterior lies a damaged woman, her trauma ridden past hidden behind a carefully curated French image.
It is only when some dramatic Byzantine pearls are loaned to the British Museum that the new life that Severine has so painstakingly built for herself becomes compromised. She knows where the pearls have come from, remembers them from her dark past – and her shocking revelation of their provenance sets off a frenzied hunt for Nazi Ruda Mayek.
In a painful turn of events, Severine is forced to confront her painful past, and to remember, in clear detail, the memory she has long tried to suppress – her beloved family brutally murdered, and the war criminal who got away with it all, taking the pearls with him…
Showcasing Fiona’s impressive historical writing skills, The Pearl Thief whisks readers away on a journey from the snowy woodlands outside of Prague to the Tuileries of Paris to the heather-covered moors of Yorkshire. Fiona has a great gift for weaving a sense of time and place in words, and by the end of this near 500-page novel, you will feel as if you’ve truly lived and breathed all these destinations without ever having left your couch.
The Pearl Thief is a stunning work of historical fiction, laced with layers of research and rich detail. As a writer, Fiona is committed to the historical integrity of her work – she researches incessantly, and refuses to write about a place until she has set foot there. This diligence and eye for detail shines through in all of her works, particularly in The Pearl Thief, which might well be her best novel to date.
Equal parts inspiring and devastating, this Holocaust survival story turned suspenseful cat and mouse chase is addictive and it’s hard to focus on anything else until the very last word has been devoured. Fans of historical fiction – along with those who simply enjoy a rattling good yarn – will love The Pearl Thief, a rare and marvellous gem from one of Australia’s bestselling authors.
About the author:
Fiona McIntosh is an internationally bestselling author of novels for adults and
children. She co-founded an award-winning travel magazine with her husband, which they ran for fifteen years while raising their twin sons before she became a full-time author. Fiona roams the world researching and drawing inspiration for her novels, and runs a series of highly respected fiction masterclasses. She calls South Australia home.
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