While I think this book had great potential, after a few chapters I couldn't take the obvious and long-winded writing any longer. Spending several paragraphs of introduction on each new character, making said characters appear without any explanation or reason, and double stating each and every dialogue tag are writing mistakes which belong in a rough draft, but not a finished novel. Even skipping ahead proved the writing quality does not improve but only gets worse. With shallow characterization, hit-you-over-the-head foreshadowing, and contemporary opinions forced onto a vastly different time period, this story about a Regency England "sleuth" is clearly not worth my time.