First of all...this is not a thrill-seekers story. If you picked it up because you love mystery stories with grand conclusions all tied up in a neat little bow...walk away.
This is a book for readers, and writers, and lovers of the written word. The descriptions are sweeping, and mean as much to the story as the hundred quiet little intrigues that they build up.
The suspense and mysteries, while concerning large events, are never revealed in a giant "A-HA!" conclusion. Instead, they are introduced quietly, and just as quietly played out. In the end you know all the conclusions, in a very satisfactory sort of way, but again--it's not some giant "resolution" and those who like stories like that will not like this one.
I'm so glad I've read this. Morton clearly has a love for the written word, and her voice reads more like prose than simply "a novel." Some have complained that the book needed editing; again, I disagree. For me this was just as much about the descriptions and seeing things through the lives of the characters as it was the story itself.
Well done.
