Rating: 
Summary: Painfully slow...
Review: You know something is wrong when you have to force yourself to finish a book. As anyone can see from my reviews, I am hardly illiterate, nor do I turn up my nose at most genres (except romances!) At one point, I enjoyed Anne Perry's books, but this one was incredibly disjointed, needlessly wordy, the plot needed work, and the characters never take on a semblance of reality. Sometimes I wonder if some of these writers get so use to a certain lifestyle and a certain audience who adores them, that they no longer enjoy writing and they are merely churning out the books for the money. Maybe I am way off bat here, but I have become increasing disgruntled with lazy authors, whether it be in hacked out mysteries, or historical biographers who plagiarize the works of others. If it isn't worth the time to do the job right, then don't do that job...If the reader wants safe reading, if they want to get preached at (the topic for this particular book was racial prejudice against Jews...which I totally agree needs to be brought up again for another generation...but not so obviously!) If the reader wants a dark historical mystery that doesn't demand thinking on the part of the reader...then I guess this book is okay. I don't think I will be picking up a Perry book again.
Karen Sadler, University of Pittsburgh
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