Plot or Premise

What does a mentally ill man claiming to have witnessed a murder twenty years before have to do with a couple of Members of Parliament and blackmail?

What I Liked

It’s a different world than the previous stories and almost reads a bit like a Victorian novel by Anne Perry. The MP, his family, the dysfunctional relationships between them, etc., are all entertaining. I liked seeing Robin go undercover and some sort of resolution of the relationship with Matthew.

What I Didn’t Like

The story starts one year after the wedding scene of the previous book, and it skips over a lot of the growing business—stuff that would have been fun to see, although it notes that Robin and Strike are not talking much about anything other than work. And there was the obligatory scene with Charlotte that has no more relevance than the crap with Matthew. The extra length to the book (almost 40% longer than the previous ones) added a lot of slippage.

The Bottom Line

Is crime-solving an Olympic event?