The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

A first novel, I think, this is a sort of cross between chick lit and historical fiction with a sort of unresolved supernatural twist. Set in the late 1600s, it tells the story of Petronella, an eighteen year old Dutch girl from the country, who is married off to a wealthy Amsterdam merchant. He gives her a cabinet house – the real one can be seen in the Rijksmuseum – and she finds a miniaturist to help her furnish it. But as the tiny contents of the house begin to arrive, she soon discovers that the miniaturist is foretelling the future. All very spooky. The book was interesting only in that it gave a historical fictionist’s view of the Netherlands during that period, where the burgomasters and the church were all powerful guardians of people’s morals and behaviour. It was a pretty thin effort I thought and worth reading only in the absence of something better.