It gets off to a very slow start. Cook introduces too many new countries and characters too fast. There is too much detail to keep track of but too little to keep the politics straight in your mind. Instead of becoming interesting back-story, it just becomes confusing. Once he settles down to a few main characters and their relationships to each other, the novel gets a lot more interesting and by the end there are a number of good scenes and the plot comes together.
I also finished the first of the Hamish Macbeth mysteries, Death of a Gossip, by M.C. Beaton. It's a short book, which is a relief since most novels published these days tend to be 300+ pages. It is a classic mystery with some interesting characters and, as typical in a classic mystery, two villains - the murderer and the victim.
Amazon Link:
The Tyranny of the Night
Death of a Gossip
