expectations are an odd thing. i don’t know what i do to obtain them. maybe i judge a book by its cover, but the cover of this book is perfectly good. i’ve only heard good things about the castlemere series, of which this is the fourth, so i can’t blame my preconceived ideas on either reviews or author’s first book syndrome. this book is definitely not below par, it’s both well written and very well plotted.

the characters are where it really shines though. one of the main threads of the tale is about rape, a crime that isn’t often dealt with in crime fiction. fictional murders are common place and often reduced to almost comic book proportions on the page, rape’s not a crime that can reasonably be given that treatment. the actions and reactions of both the female and male characters in this book are infinitely believeable and very touching. the tangled web of other crimes that the castlemere detectives have to deal with could almost make an adventure story, but it’s the realism of the rape storyline that i’ll remember. (this is book 4 in the castlemere series)