Title: Go elsewhere
Product review: I only read a third of this novel and was compelled to put it down. Two main things bothered me: Benson's style and her content. First of all, this is her first novel and it shows. The "archaic" style of the 14th-century segment is laughable. Generally, the pacing is simply incompetent. It is a plodding recitation of events which follow one another step by step by step by step... Benson made me appreciate once again how skilled suspense writers know which events in a narrative to stress and which to put side by side to create excitement and anticipation. Secondly -- and this is going to be rude -- Benson comes across as a dull person with nothing to say: her asides are pedestrian and unimaginative. I'm not expecting Milan Kundera in such a novel, but this makes me lack the slightest desire to hold a conversation with her.In short, there are great suspense novels being written all the time. Read them INSTEAD!
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