while he fails to solve the main mystery to which everyone else knows the answer. Israel Armstrong is not a hero defined by his strengths, but by his weaknesses. Indeed, Sansom gifts him with no discernible strengths whatsoever. He has no social skills, few powers of deduction (and those he has invariably lead him in the wrong direction), and the author meticulously avoids allowing him to use the knowledge gained from books to his advantage. Armstrong is just like us, the reader, but even more so. He is the ordinary man's un-extraordinary man. Sansom does give him one moment, but only one, where his knowledge about books (rather than anything he learned in books) gives him the edge, and on this the story turns in the most utterly believable way. I'm not sure whether this is a comedy or not. In principle it should be hilariously funny, but the author never allows us to get far enough away from his protagonist to let us have a good laugh at him (all the other characters get to laugh, though). As it is, we get closer to Israel Armstrong than to perhaps any detective I have encountered. A marvellous book, superbly written, and boding great things for the future. I thought this was going to be a detective story, when I found it wasn't. Was I disappointed? No, definitely not. I found it very refreshing. I warmed to the main character Israel, his naivity of the rural areas of Northern Ireland is