Mark Charan Newton

Giving up at page 215 (of 429, so about halfway). It's part a shambles of ordinary writing; part the tedium of unravelling mysteries that are still mysterious, not compelling; and part that the world is so straight-up classical that I find myself yearning for some Falco, where at least ancient Rome is virulently alive, compellingly everyday, and no one ever says "OK"...

I'm also a bit perplexed that the gritty promise of the logline ("They'll kill to hide the truth... He'll kill to find it") seems to be in direct opposition to our "but why does there have to be violence?" hero. The dark spirits promised by the blurb have failed to manifest as anything other than a once-off rumour, and the political assassination likewise promised has also completely failed to loom with dire consequences. Instead, we have apparently ordinary actors, chatty and helpful senators, the re-emergence of a boringly ordinary childhood sweetheart tragedy, and a hero who is having trouble with the gossip about the murder victim because she didn't seem like a slut to him when he took one quick look at her bedroom.

I'm bored. I'm genuinely perplexed as to why I've seen so many excited reviews about this book. I have a stack of other books beckoning. Moving on.… (more)