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Title: Cardboard characters, interesting information
Review: The idea has a lot going for it - the execution is poor. The only reason I finished it was to read about the sites in Rome and their history. This reminded me of Clive Cussler - male series character, new woman in every book, obligatory relationship. Ian Fleming did it better. Nowadays the females get interesting professions but it's really their appearance and attraction that get the attention. There isn't any character development that is shown rather than told.The villain became obvious fairly early on. The last couple chapters involve a twist that seems written in according to formula.I had high hopes for this. The author obviously has a lot of knowledge and good plot ideas. The writing, however, is so flawed that it robbed the book of any charm.
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