Maybe it helps to read mediocre books so you truly appreciate a good book when it crosses your path. 1 star=unreadable, 2 stars=sorry to have wasted the time but did actually finish it, 3 stars is a notch above that and hey, that's not bad for a first-time author.

My complaints include: a plot that is driven by an only mildly compelling question, tons of subplots that have nothing to do with the main question and are boring distractions, poorly written fictional historical documents....I got the feeling the author was desperately trying to pad the novel with prose even she couldn't have found compelling.

Also, it is incumbent upon an author who writes with constant, intentional reference to a certain setting to give us the appropriate sense of place through their writing, not just say the place is important or interesting and to expect the reader to fall in line and agree without proof. I got very little sense of why I was supposed to care about Templeton, except it had a lake, baseball tourists, and a lot of (boring) family history for the narrator.

On a final note, the revelation of the narrator's true father, and how that came to pass- and also how it was not revealed or even realized by the man in question for decades-is ridiculous.