It is pretty much what I expected: mindless reading to occupy a 12-hour train trip. It was just interesting enough to keep me reading with breaks to look at the passing scenery. The mediaeval time period it uses is that just before the "Stephen and Matilda" used in the Brother Cadfael mystery series, so it filled out the dynastic background for me. One of the plot components has already been used in Rumer Goddens' In This House of Bede (new monastic buildings financed by expected-but-not-realized gifts). Otherwise a pleasant exploration of life in the time period with an interesting enough puzzle to solve,

One thing that annoyed me, as usual, is that the American author writing for Americans explains and provides glossary for terms perfectly familiar to me but fails to provide glossary for some Old French names of things (in ladies clothing, knights equipment, household utensils) that I'd never heard before.

But a funny thing happened to me as got near the end of the book. I found that I kept thinking of the Love of God and wanted to get back into the book's atmosphere and exploration of that theme again.

I enjoyed it enough that I will buy another in the Averillan series, for light reading, if I come across one in an airport bookstall, or similar place,while travelling. Won't buy one right now. ( )