And so begins my summer of reading many mysteries. This was recommended to me at some point as being a more literary mystery, and what that seems to mean here is it's slower-paced, less violent and more psychologically complex than other examples of the genre, perhaps. I liked a lot of things about the book - the grounding in post-WWI England, the tightness and efficiency of the prose, the use of Freudian psychology in solving a murder. It was a little slow at times, though, and anytime I lost focus I also lost momentum in the story. There are a couple more in the series and I could see reading more to learn more about Detective John Madden, haunted war veteran. One thing that stuck out for me, both as a American vs. British cultural difference and a sign of the time period - how very freaked out they were by a killer who has a shotgun, and how, when the police were sent in, a bunch of them were not actually armed.