The second book of the Blake and Avery series, while enjoyable, fell a little short for me. This book suffered the same problem as The Strangler Vine, in that it was painfully slow in the beginning. However, where TSV picked up momentum the further along you got, this book continued to drag. I was halfway through it before it really captured my interest. Unfortunately, the plot slowed to a crawl the last third of the book and didn't pick back up until the last few chapters. It did have a satisfying ending, I'll give it that. I assume that they'll be another book in the series at some point. The author left the door open for another adventure. She also left a loose thread and I'm not sure where she's going with it. In any case, while not as good as the first, it's still a worthwhile read.