This was perfectly good historical fiction, and fairly enjoyable. However, for a mystery, it wasn't very mysterious. The mystery of who killed the prostitutes felt like a minor subplot

that only became important to the story when Tilla ran away and everyone was worried she had been/could be killed in a similar fashion

. In fact, the mystery didn't even really start to have momentum (or interesting clues/leads) until over halfway into the book.

That being said, I still enjoyed the characters and the setting and the overall storyline. I'll probably give the next one a try sometime, though I'm not in a rush.