Review: Interesting yarn, good in parts, obtuse in others, slightly thin and disappointing in the end
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 5, 2014
I don't write a lot of book reviews, generally only when something is either very, very good or so throughly disappointing I feel I need to complain to someone.The story was interesting in how it wove historical and literary tidbits into the story, but I think it was a bit over done.  The puzzles that Lisa had to figure out were obscure to the point of being improbable...unless I guess one had the power to view events in both the future and the past.  The setting in France was interesting, but without personal knowledge of Paris an awful lot of that was a distraction.  Many, many references to places in Paris and surrounding regions that didn't add any particular color to the scene because there was little to know descriptive prose to communicate what that reference was intended to evoke.The bad, secret order in the church and their self-self-rightnousness and eager rush to put people "to the Question" was classic and is guaranteed to offend any devout or sensitive Catholics.I enjoyed reading it, but was left feeling like there was something missing.  The conclusion wasn't satisfying, and there were a number of unanswered questions.  Two that spring to mind are the backstory with Lisa's mother - there was a reference to something that her mother had done that was never resolved.  And a similar dangling story line with her father and some apparent connection between Lisa's father and the murderous num Tisa.I'd call it an honest C+.  I think there was potential to be a much stronger book with more development of the scenes, less ambiguity in the back stories and a stronger finish.