I read Hislop's latest around X-mas, in the quiet of the night. Very promising at first, but the novel is so plot-driven it is infuriating. No character development, many inconsistencies in the plot, some bad Greek (she should have asked her Greek friends to proofread). I kept reading because the main part of the plot happens during World War II in Thessaloniki, my home town, and that was such a dramatic time for the city. To be fair her descriptions are good and memorable. But the book could have been so much better.