The problem with liking an author who writes in a vast and wild array of genres is that sometimes they go from one of your favorite genres (gothic horror with woman and house) to one of your least favorites (noir). And I still thought Moreno-Garcia did a really good job making me care and telling the story with both sympathy and cynicism. It was that blend that made it work for me, coupled with what seems to be her trademark move of taking a genre and shifting the gaze so that the people at the periphery come into the center. There are beautiful women and hard-boiled detectives and powerful men and...we don't spend time with them. This is the noir that centers the bit players and the people who get drawn into things. It's so much more of what I wish noir would be.