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Title: Sheer melodrama, lacks power of others in series
Review: I was very impressed by Rowland's work after reading The Concubine's Tattoo. I felt she had a real knack for drawing complex characters with believable motivations. I was completely drawn into the world she portrays, and I found Sano an interesting character with some very believable problems. My one criticism of the novel was its melodramatic ending. Then I read Shinju and had much the same reaction.But The Way of the Traitor is melodrama through and through, unredeemed by any of the depth of feeling that marks the others. The author's attempts to flesh out her characters by the use of flashbacks to their earlier lives fails badly, and the plot is like something out of Enid Blyton, with mysterious lights and smuggler's coves. By the time I got to the last couple of chapters I no longer cared about any of it, least of all who the guilty parties were.
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