While the mystery was reasonably complex and the unravelling of all the bits was plenty entertaining, the character development has dropped off considerably. The author is falling back on development established in earlier novels, which is fine if we’ve exhausted their life-stories and backgrounds and have explored every angle of their complex individual humanity—but we haven’t yet. I feel there is way more to offer the reader, and it is skimmed over, and relationships and character depth are sacrificed for plot in this one.

Still a decent read, but not quite up to par.

My major gripe is that all these main characters and supporting cast are all so ... nice. Some of these people must have a negative thought or a selfish motive every now and again… they’re all too perfect if you ask me, and their ‘dirty little secrets’ are nothing to get up in a fuss over. I’m not asking for a grand scandal, but maybe a wee veritable secret or a past action that comes up to bite someone in the bum—or anything remotely intriguing to keep our sustained interest if this series is going to continue.