One of the more frustrating books I have ever read. Some good writing, but with terrible characters and dodgy plotting--an infuriating combination.

The author can turn a nice phrase. But, the Major excepted, the characters are terrible. I know so little about Mrs. Ali, which is a shame; she seemed like she must have been a hell of a lady.

The son, Roger, is particularly weak; he's a complete cartoon. Ooh, a shallow young man, who condescends to and fails to understand his dad? Really? Let me guess: Does he work in finance? Why, yes. Is he self-absorbed, ambitious but not very bright, and tactless? Check, check, check. Does he favor inappropriately flashy clothes and dumb, easily mockable modern decor? Of course he does. I shouldn't be able to predict every single aspect of a character's behavior, but I was.

There were similar problems with the plot: There were several scenes where I thought, "Oh, BS. The author has no idea about this." A lot of the gun stuff, specifically, and people's behavior at a hunt, was simply not credible.

It took me a while to finish this, because I kept thinking, "Oh, I should read more of that, but I don't wanna." After a while, I'd get brave and pick it up, and sure enough soon I'd be chuckling or saying, "Oh, that's nice!" to a specific line. But boy, it felt long.

Meh.