Publication Date: September 30, 2025
Innocence and delight, guile and misapprehension, the hint of indifference, even disdain on her pretty features. Fickle, he called her, a mixture of surprise and confidence. She is all that and more, brought to life with the ink strokes of a genius.
Spanish Netherlands, 1620s: raised by her father Lucas to know her mind, Antonia Vorsterman sees everything that goes on in her world – all the rivalries and jealousies that course through the artists’ studios and workshops of Antwerp.
Drawn into the lively household of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, whose work her father engraves for a living, Antonia begins to see a life of colour and possibility for herself – until Lucas entrusts her with a terrible secret that will alter the course of their family’s future.
Belgium, present day: haunted by the recent loss of her mother, art historian Charlotte Hubert moves to Antwerp to research her hero, the Baroque master Rubens, and to seek answers about the father she’s never met.
But a startling discovery hidden inside an ancient map folio turns Charlotte’s quiet academic life into a dangerous hunt for long-lost treasures, missing for 400 years. In the shadowy cloisters of the university, where ambition, obsession and violence run deep, nothing is as it seems.
Charlotte is certain of one thing – no one can be trusted.
Centuries apart, Charlotte’s and Antonia’s lives intertwine as they unearth long-buried secrets about a master and his engraver where theft, betrayal and the fallout of family loyalty run rampant.
What do you do when the weight of betrayal grows too heavy to bear?
Past and present collide in a fascinating mystery tied to artist Peter Paul Rubens and the engravings he used as a marketing tool.
Rich with historical detail, author Lisa Medved creates a fictional plot spanning 400 years in The Engraver’s Secret. Linked by alternating timelines, Antonia Vorsterman and Charlotte Hubert play key roles.
There’s no doubt the author has thoroughly researched life in the Spanish Netherlands during the early 17th century. The setting and backdrop effortlessly transport readers back in time to witness artistic life in Antwerp. Yet, it is a family secret that causes Antonia to set out on a much different path.
Meanwhile, modern-day Belgium features Charlotte as an art historian, who makes a shocking discovery while researching Rubens. That discovery puts her on a collision course with danger. Meanwhile, her personal search for the father she has never met also takes a surprising turn.
The Engraver’s Secret delves into a battleground full of intrigue and betrayal, where creativity wins the day.
Lisa Medved is an Australian author who divides her time between Melbourne and The Hague. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in history and fine art from the University of Melbourne, Lisa went on to work in public relations and event management, honing her writing skills for various corporate publications and several magazines in the UK and the Netherlands. The Engraver’s Secret is her first novel, and was born out of a passion for history and art, a curiosity in the life of a little-known Flemish engraver and his relationship with a world-renowned painter, and a desire to explore the secrets that can lie beneath the surface of family dynamics. Lisa is currently working on her second novel, which is set in fin-de-siècle Vienna and post-WWI London around the art of Gustav Klimt.
