This was good. I liked it more than Fever Dream. I guess I'd give it 3 and a half if I could. I am not a fan of the half novel (which is what this is--I won't ruin it for you by saying HOW it is...suffice to say if it were any more open ended it would have stopped mid sentence). I also had a problem with Pendergast's nearly lethal case of Buffy-Syndrome (in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, Buffy fought amazingly...when it suited the plot and her fight skills tended to vanished when the writers needed her to lose a battle or look like she was losing at the beginning of a battle). In the beginning of the novel, Pendergast could have taken Esterhazy out on the moor with a blade of grass and two acorns...if he had been the Pendergast of previous novels...instead--well, you'll have to read it to find out. OR wait until the final volume in the Helen "trilogy" comes out late next year and read the whole novel.