I didn't think it was possible, but I might actually like this book better than I liked Devil in the White City. The increasing urgency of this book as the story develops, as well as the strange mix of familiarity and unfamiliarity with the events it describes make for an incredibly fascinating read. Larson has us listening in on the conversations and revelations that slowly transform the Dodds from a fairly clueless and optimistic American family reveling in life abroad, to the unwelcome harbingers of doom to a fairly clueless and optimistic American government.