Every British writer of book or TV mysteries will eventually get around to writing an episode about Serbian war criminals making their way into the country, and the specter of war crimes that come with them. This book is McDermid's shot at the same topic, and as often is the case, it's just a way to show off a lot of historical knowledge while borrowing from the gravity of those events.

That makes for a lot of exposition. A LOT of exposition. Add an unexpected layer of romantic dreaminess on top of that, and you end up with an eminently skimmable book. And that's what I did. I skimmed a lot of that exposition.

This is my fourth McDermid book, and the first three were excellent, so I'm assuming this is just a bad idea dragged out at length & that her other books are great. In the meantime, this is a good one to skip.