MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

My least favorite Mary Russell book to date.

Maybe that's because I prepped myself for the end of the series in the prior novel, which solved-resolved a key aspect to Mary's past -- her feelings of guilt over the car-accident death of her parents and brother.

Anyway, this book seemed very 'mannered,' or self-conscious to me.

The discovery that Holmes fathered a son, who's now of adult age -- a son who's until now unbeknowst to Holmes himself -- was intriguing.

So was the description of Mary's flight by plane, w. a surly pilot thru stormy weather, to a Scottish island.

Pehaps due to personal distractions, I just couldn't force myself to totally grasp the cult writings that pervade the book (excerpted verbatim at the top of each chapter, and discussed in the novel narrative), nor to really understand what motivated most of the characters (the bad guy himself, ditto for the wife of Holmes' son).

Also, I thought the ending was very abrupt and choppy.