I was captivated by Edwin Hill's writing from the first few pages, but I found that I had to really pay attention to keep track of all the characters that get introduced towards the beginning of the book. However, a mystery novel needs to have enough characters to keep people guessing, so I understood the need for each of the characters. When I initially started reading this book, I had no idea that it was a part of Hill's Hester Thursby mystery series, and I appreciated that even the third book in the series was accessible to readers who weren't familiar with the series yet. While I wish I had read the other two books first, this was still a great standalone book and I look forward to going back to read the other two books. Overall, this book was very engaging and the mystery was intriguing. While some mystery stories feel overly predictable, this one didn't and I'm excited to read more books by Edwin Hill.