I'm going to start with saying that I rate this book at 2. In my world, that means I finished the book, but I really kind of wish I hadn't. I was really engrossed by the book for quite some time, but around 4/5ths of the way through, I should have just given up. I love character studies and slow burns, but damn what a slog the last bit of the book was! In my opinion, the payoff wasn't worth it at all. My quibble isn't with the quality of the writing at all - that is excellent. I was let down by the end of the book.