An Alexandre Dumas work - definitely, but a sequel to the Three Musketeers - certainly not; these promotional half truths do more a disservice to the book that enhance its acceptance by the public.
I also feel that a bit more editing would have been beneficial for the final outcome - I wouldn't have missed some annoying anachronisms, some overly lengthy historical passages and the overload of adverts for his other novels, which we love and cherish anyways. I also didn't quite appreciate some of Dumas' trademark - but often rather absurd - coincidences, although I suppose there's no cure for that.

Still, a new novel by Dumas could never be a disappointment for the completist at heart. His captivating writing style, albeit somewhat muddled by the penny-a-line convention, his lively characters, his humor, the intrigue, the passion, the historical background that we get to know in detail- all that is more than enough for me to say that I truly enjoyed this novel, even despite its untimely cliffhanger of an ending, and the slightly ridiculous novella added to this edition. Richelieu was among my favorite characters even when portrayed as a villain in the Three Musketeers, so this vindication is most welcome for his numerous fans.

Last, but not least, the translator did a magnificent job of rendering this book into English, and I couldn't be more satisfied with the result. Thanks to him and to the gifted narrator, this book turned out to be much more enjoyable than I expected after reading the initial impressions here.