I’ve really enjoyed plenty of Tim Pears’ other books, and this one seems to be coming in for mountains of praise, so I wasn’t expecting to feel so ‘meh’ about it. It’s set just before the first world war and is the first volume of a trilogy. I felt like I should have waited a few years until there was a three-in-one edition. I’d agree that the writing, the atmosphere, the characters are all top-notch, but still. This felt like a prequel rather than like a whole book and I don’t currently feel any desire to pick up the second and/or the third.