A boring and interminable first half killed this book for me. All 3 main characters were involved in their own mysteries, but it takes so long to reveal them, and each development so simple, that I rapidly lost interest with each chapter. I felt that essentially there was a problem with the plot's focus. Although the central conflict was the king's assassination, by the 50% mark the author has only spent 1 chapter - the murderer's trial - to address this issue. The new emperor is also still stuck in some backwards nowhere learning monk hood. Halfway into the book. I kid you not. 
 Perhaps there's some major payoff at atthe end, perhaps everything may mean something eventually. But when the red herrings are placed so inobviously and the action so dreary, there's really nothing to sustain my interest along the way to last until the final payoff. Tempted to skip all the extraneous developments to the end.