I found this an excellent adventure and mystery to solve. The main characters (and minor ones that were relevant to the plot) were very well fleshed out and I felt like I knew them well by the end of the book. As always, if I am reaching for a pencil to highlight phrases and passages, I count that towards a successful book. Key for me was “…the past was not something to be escaped from, but a fundamental part of who one was.” This is a universal theme that resonated with me and I took comfort in. We all have secrets, and pretty much every character in the story has several, and those secrets make us who we are – for good or bad.

The story within the story is an example of New Journalism, called Creative Nonfiction in today’s world. Morton explains it as “…fiction techniques were applied to nonfiction topics with the aim of bringing readers emotionally closer to the story.” I love Creative Nonfiction, and Morton’s analysis of it makes one really think about the role of the author in these types of stories. What secrets do they leave out, what of their own personal story do they unconsciously imbue the story with? An interesting and thought provoking addition to an already enticing mystery.

At 544 pages, I did think the story was dragged out a bit (okay, a LOT). Take out the physical description of everything and the backstories of minor characters who really were not relevant to the plot, and the novel could have been half the size and far more interesting to read. I was skimming pages from the very beginning.

Still, I enjoyed the story very much and found myself pondering the ending from many angles, so all in all, I would recommend the book to others who like a good historical mystery.