THE GREAT PEARL HEIST : LONDON'S GREATEST THIEF AND SCOTLAND YARD'S HUNT FOR THE WORLD'S MOST VALUABLE NECKLACE
by Molly Caldwell Crosby

In the summer of 1913, a pale pink pearl necklace was bought by a London broker. (It was worth more than the Hope Diamond.) News of the sale spreads around the world enticing both jewelers and thieves. En route from London to Paris, the necklace disappears.
Sounds like an intriguing book, right? The subtitle certainly seems that way. Nope. Many reviewers said that it's fast-paced, a thriller, rich, and evocative. Nothing of the sort. My terminology is: dull-witted, slow, boring, and flat. I felt as if I was reading somebody's history report. 
Since the author has written two previous books, I thought this would be somebody to follow. No way. After sloughing through seventy-three pages, it was time to return the book to the library.
Not recommended. 

FORMER PEOPLE : THE FINAL DAYS OF THE RUSSIAN ARISTOCRACY
by Douglas Smith

There have been many books written about the Romanovs but not so with other families of the Russian aristocracy. Douglas Smith centers primarily on two: the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns and what happened to them from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 up to the Stalin era.
I, alas, only reached page 93 and it's quite a hefty book. There's way too many details, too many characters that you can't get your head around, too many footnotes and it all becomes quite dizzying. Even the directives for the black-and-white photographs are misleading and incorrect. I have read plenty of excellent histories on the Russian people and this one doesn't even come close.
Not recommended.