Hm. At first, I liked the third book more than the previous ones. Not because there was a change in writing, though. I think I got used to the author's style over time AND I was already invested in characters. The first part of the book was all about the characters, their relationships, their past and their development, and I liked this a lot even though there was a nagging feeling at the back of my head that nothing was actually happening, nothing pushed the plot onward. And that changed about a halfway through and plot happened and kept happening and I finally realized that the reason why I didn't like these books as much as other reviewers here is because I didn't like the plot itself and its execution in particular. At least in the previous installments, the main theme of the book was always resolved, somehow, but not this time. There wasn't any strong theme like before, unless you count Maura as a theme - I don't. It feels like nothing happened, even though lots of things actually did. But it was all sidetracking and I was not emotionally invested in it. I think I won't remember the plot in a week's time.