Having loved Peter Toyne's 1st novel Sanctus, I came to this sequel with feelings of both anticipation and trepidation. Sanctus was just so good, I wondered how the author could equal it, never mind ratchet up the pleasure another notch. In many ways both feelings were borne out as although it was still a damn good read, it never quite hit the heights of the first offering and had several flaws.

It was slow to get going, with a lot of backtracking to link it to Sanctus, though once it got going about a third of the way in, it rattled along like the proverbial train. Some of the plotting left a little to be desired, with some characters (e.g. the Group)introduced and then shoved into the background again without explanation. I also found the Lazarus like return of one central character particularly bizarre. All sounds a bit like I hated it but honestly these are just minor quibbles. The author is a gifted storyteller and I look forward to his next book, although I hope he moves on to new characters rather than trying to squeeze the pips out of these ones.