My expectations were that this would be a pretty traditional mystery. As usual I’m not quite sure where the expectations come from though probably from the fact that the later Taylor’s I’ve read have had traditional mystery elements at their hearts even if that wasn’t usually all they were. I got thrown by the story veering off the path of a regular mystery and becoming a book in which the protagonist, history postgrad William Dougal, is more of a committer of crimes than a solver of them. Having my head and expectations messed with by books is always a good thing though and I really enjoyed this tale, never having a clue where it was going to end up. I know that there is a series featuring Dougal and I wonder how on earth Taylor follows this book up. It’ll be fun finding out.