This was a recommendation by a friend who actually brought it over for my husband to read while he receovers from spinal fusion surgery done earlier this month.
But since my husband isn't a huge reader, and his pain meds are interfering with his ability to focus (and he is stil on GRRM's 2nd volume in the Song of Ice & Fire series)...I snatched it up instead.

This was an absorbing read. I didn't know going into it whether there was any earlier books I should read first (luckily it was the 1st in a series) but I did feel a little behind from the get-go as I didn't know much about the world setting the protagonist lives in.

However, that ultimately didn't cut back on my ability to enjoy this novel. It's one that makes you think and is more of a detective/mystery novel than an action one. Through the progtagonist, Alex Benedict, you examine the philosophy of war in the context of a 200-year old space conflict between humans and humanoid telepathic aliens. Benedict inherits a mystery when his uncle passes away and he's immediately drawn into solving the puzzle when some information is stolen from his uncle's house.

The subsequent investigation leads him to question the historical events and the heroes of the war against the alien "mutes". He is forced to review how he feels about these heroes and how society reveres them and must come to terms with the truth that he is discovering.

The novel makes you question how factual history ever is, and makes you ponder a tricky moral question...Is is better to correct an inaccurate historical account, or to leave it alone, when how the history is remembered could very well be the glue holding the current fabric of society together?