The Luminaries is a long, dense work of historical fiction full of interesting characters involved in unraveling a murder mystery. As others have mentioned, the book follows a mathematical structure that apparently has something to do with the moon and stars and results in super long chapters at the beginning of the book and concludes with half page chapters. This affects the plot severely in that 3/4 of the book's 800+ pages are spent an a small handful of super analyzed days as some men try to find out who-dunnit...while the final revelation occurs in the subheading of a chapter (at least...I think that was the big reveal...). I'm impressed by the author's research of a time period and place I know nothing about (mid-1800s gold rush in New Zealand) as well her ability to craft believable characters from a variety of different backgrounds. However, many of these characters just fade and disappear from the plot as it narrows to focus in on some star-crossed lovers. While the book is not poorly written, I'm frustrated that after spending so many hours reading it...that I'm left without any strong impression or a vivid memory of what actually happened. The book seemed to make quite a splash last year when it came out especially here since the author was born locally. I suppose I just didn't get it.