Unputdownable. Pacy and complex, it apparently interweaves two unconnected plots about a religious extremist terrorist bomber and a serial killer whose weapon of choice is strange poisons, but pulls a blinder of an unexpected plot twist towards the end which, although in retrospect adequately clued, totally took me by surprise.

It also develops the characters of the detective team and the relationships between them nicely, made me care about them and their lives, and threw in a few meaty social and political messages, which it explored intelligently.

Main faults - there's some really ropey dialogue, particularly in e-mails and in the idiolect of hip young things. Quite a few times I found myself yelling "But real people don't talk like this!" at the wall.

Also, both plots veer into the melodramatic and far-fetched. The plot with the blinder of a plot twist, in particular, disappointed me a little because, while on the one hand I was impressed at how easily it hoodwinked me, I would almost have preferred if it had been what I thought it was, because that would have been more believable.

Still, overall this was a great read.