Throughout the first half of this book I was thinking 2 stars. I so wanted to like this book more than I did. I have visited and stayed overnight at the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky and was very excited to see China going there. I normally don't mind lots of characters and alternating time periods; I have no trouble keeping everybody and time straight. This novel, however, had me confused at times. There were so many 'modern' characters between all of the board members and village employees who are introduced, and then there's the entire village of Shakers in the 1912 back story.

About halfway through the book I finally had a relatively clear idea of who everyone was and had a sense of where the story might be going. I ended up really enjoying the 1912 Shaker saga more than I did the modern mystery.

Not my favorite book in the China Bayles series, but I do love China and I'm sure I'll pick up the next book!