While I am a big fan of the Pendergast series, this installment did disappoint a little in that it finds Pendergast to be-*gasp*-human. The appeal of his character is that mysterious, smoke-and-mirrors, superman quality with a wonderfully cerebral twist and in this book we see more of the fallible Pendergast with feelings. I still enjoyed it, though, and look forward to the follow-up, the third in the trilogy. I'll take Pendergast any way I can get him but I would recommend reading the Pendergast novels in order to anyone new to the series, starting with Relic.