I was all prepared to give this book a higher rating despite its self-indulgent length. It was a good companion for a Europe trip, jet lag fueled 45 minute undemanding reading binges of a fun story. I like some of his characters and the space the length gives him to develop both the characters and the quotidian details of his world. The good parts are fun story telling, and he does a pretty good job stretching out the central whodunnit mystery for awhile.

But then it came time for the whole book to come together and that flopped. The entire character of Madeleine is a deus ex machina invention thrown at us in the last third to make the plot even vaguely hang together. The central coincidence of Angela having

secret weapon implants that just happen to match the murder hand of the Big Bad

is a stupid sort of red herring to keep the audience guessing. In the end the book did not come to a satisfying conclusion, it came to a conclusion that let the author get paid and move on to the next book. I won't be joining him.