For such a great story with multiple characters/narratives that intertwine in interesting ways, the novel has a few elements that take it down from its five star parts.

- the framing device doesn't exactly work and gives it the Michael O'Donoghue's How To Write Good! ending of "suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck" at the beginning. I'm sure the argument was to bemoan the loss of history but it makes the mystery "whose dang skeleton is that?" not interesting.

- at two points there are diatribes about modern issues (including one about iPhones) that feel glaringly out of place. They're preachy and have nothing to do with the characters or setting. Sure, I agree with the author, but it'd be like Shakespeare in the middle of Antony and Cleopatra starting to complain about Queen Elizabeth I's decisions on the throne.

- the melodrama is a little too too. It felt like a Rated R movie with dubbed dialogue to make it allowed to air on network tv (rather than portraying crimes, they are foiled before they happen).

Still, good stuff abounds