** spoiler alert ** What would you do if someone told you that if you didn't follow every single thing they told you to do that they would start killing the people you love, one by one? That you, and you alone, would have their blood on your hands? And then that person took steps to PROVE that the threats were real?

That's what I kept thinking of when listening to this book on tape. There's been criticism lobbed because ostensibly, the multimillion-dollar-lottery-winning family taken hostage by a grifter had several chances to get away and took none of them. But fear is one of the greatest forms of control (coughcoughGeorgeBushcoughcoughTerrorismcoughcough), and it's certainly a big of enough factor in this work to be its own character.

Fear turns you into whatever you need to be, and fear can ultimately drive you insane. Fear also can backfire ...

At least three moments in this book were so incredibly gripping to me -- the utter simplicity of the words with which Nell and Deputy Dog have their ultimate confrontation is complete agony. With a few lines, a lifetime of desperate, stupid, genuine love is splayed apart.

The scene when Claude begs Romeo to end his suffering.

And, of course, the one with Cleo. However, and as sick as it sounds to say this, I think the outcome being the opposite would have made the book a stronger work.

Was it a happy ending? It's a sad ending. Not only because the family will ALWAYS suffer, in one form or another, despite the money, but because you COMPLETELY know what it's going to be like after the dust settles -- how the townspeople, the pilgrims, all of them -- will excuse themselves and brush off their own foolishness. It's almost unbearable to think about.