Mister Vermeer

Irvine Eidelman is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He has worked for multinational pharmaceutical companies both in South Africa and abroad as Medical Director and Director of Clinical Research. He has also held office on the executive of various national societies of psychiatry in South Africa. Dr. Eidelman lives in Cape Town South Africa where he was in full time private specialist psychiatric practice until 2015. Irvine is a professional photographer and is a frequent visitor to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park (The Peace Park) which lies in the remote northern regions of South Africa. He published his first collection of photographs, Cape To Kalahari, in 2006. www.capetokalahari.co.za Irvine teaches ＂hands on＂ digital photography in Cape Town with its unique and picturesque photographic options for the budding photographer. Having a keen interest in World War 2, he published his first novel, The Lost Hours in 2013. This novel, based on a true story, describes a secret, daring and audacious glider operation into France in the early hours of DDay 6th June 1944. Mister Vermeer - The Underberg Legacy is his second novel in which Eidelman skilfully blends his knowledge of art, WW2 history, South African History and the Kalahari into a layered tapestry of plots and subplots which only come together at the end of the book. Synopsis: When Richard Underberg’s fiancée, Claudine d’Este, receives a mysterious phone call from a dying German lawyer to restore film from World War II and decipher codes in a notebook, it is a request she cannot refuse. Closely shadowed by the enigmatic Dominique Prideux, who appears to be an art thief, Underberg and d’Este find themselves on a trail of plundered art. Complicating everything is the legacy of Underberg’s father, a decorated German solider in 1918 and then a Jewish-German refugee in 1936. The novel begins in Cape Town, but traverses the art world of Europe, and the red dunes of the Kalahari, as Richard and Claudine embark on their quest to uncover art stolen by the Nazis, come to terms with Underberg’s family’s past, and perhaps even unearth a lost painting by Vermeer in the process.