This book was just ok. The book is divided into three parts, each shorter and less satistying than the previous. When I first started reading it took me a while to get used to the formality of speech between the characters, but then again, this is Victorian-era England. It started out as a suspenseful whodunnit among the wealthy and titled gentry. Then part two really became a book about internal self-exploration with the whoddunit part becoming a secondary story. I was left wanting to know more about Lady Vespasia even though this is technically not her journey. I was also left wanting to know more about the deceased and why what happened, happened. The author really does leave you wanting more. I guess she's a writer of series so she plans to continue writing about this(ese) character(s) and the inner journey they take? Anyway, I don't like books, or movies, that seem to be written with a sequel already in mind. Then in part three, the journey ends, both physically and emotionally, and all of a sudder everyone becomes all religious. Mind you, I am a Christian, and part three takes place on Christmas Eve, but we went from a mystery novel to a novel about religious redemption in the blink of an eye. I would have loved for part three to have been as long as the previous two parts. It just seem that after such a long physical and emotional journey things were tidied up a little too quickly and really left me wanting more. So for all the reasons previously stated, this book was just ok.