Historical fiction is not my favorite genre, but pushing through the long winded details to get to the jaw dropping wonderfulness of this mystery was well worth it. I read the first 20 pages of this book and thought I was in for an awesome read. I was then disappointed when it started to feel like I was reading boring news paper clippings about the war in Barcelona in the 1930's. Well... that's a bit of an exaggeration, but what I mean is that I was bored to death. My problem was that while I was waiting for the mystery to build, I was left with characters whom I couldn't build a connection to and didn't care about. When the mystery picked back up, I was totally absorbed again though. Never before have I read a book that has blind sided me with jaw dropping revelations as this book has. So glad I pushed through and read this book. I had to rate this book 4 stars because I am still in awe over how rocked my world was when certain things were revealed in the book. So refreshing it is to read something that isn't predictable!