This book had the potential to be really good—a murder mystery set in 19th century Korea during a time of Catholic oppression and intense political intrigue? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it has some of the most violently purple prose I’ve ever read and a main character who started out annoying and never learned from her mistakes. The pacing was that of a literary character study, but since the MC’s character didn’t develop, this made for an excruciating read. I audiobooked this and would absolutely have DNF’d if not for the fact that I read this for a book club. The idea was good, but the execution was not. At least I learned about a fascinating period of Korean history.