The title of this book should have been Les Misérables. It was tedious. Not one person found any joy in their life. Kay and Benton who were supposed to be so in love seemed like an old out of sorts married couple with Benton holding on to his misery and grudges while Kay becomes absent-minded. Poor Marino is still lurking around like a dog who has been kicked and Lucy is up to her usual lying and underhanded activities. At times I felt like I was back in Chemistry class as the professor droned on and on focusing on minutia while the big picture was somewhere out the window. When I trudged through 450 pages before the action started and characters came to life, I felt that too much time and too many details preceded that point. If about 200 pages were ripped out of this story, it would actually be good.