A cracking tale. Wonderfully written. Dialogues are stilted as though the lines are being read out from a piece of paper. Characters are like cardboard cutouts with no clear motivation driving them. Alex Cadman is constantly befuddled, surprising for a veteran Scotland Yard cop. The character of Jasmina is probably the weakest link of this book, apart from the dialogue.

The author really excels when driving the story forward. The story suffers when characters have to interact with each other.

In a nutshell: great story, poorly conceived characters and not well-written dialogue.

Superb ending, though. A solid 4/5.