It took a while to get into the book's main story because right off the bat, there's historical and background explanations (that was too dry and not so interesting). However, once the main story gets rolling it is still very slow. Not that there's anything wrong with a slow-paced novel. Actually for this poetic mystery, it actually works. The characters and the mystery is good - lots of complexity and not predictable. The weakness of this book, I think is due to translation. It doesn't do justice to the Chinese poems that is meant to be an integral part of the mystery and plot. Still looking forward to reading who's behind it all and if our heroine can achieve her goals.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.