I generally love mysteries set in Scotland, but this is one which failed to engage me from the opening scene set in 1833 Crimea to the main story set in Scotland at a much later date. Characters were not developed. I never could figure out what was going on other than the possibility of smuggling operations with all the caves and holes. I'm not certain if my failure to connect is mostly because I began reading the series with this third installment rather than at the beginning or not. Still a good author will provide enough information that someone picking up at a later point is not completely lost. I finally decided "enough is enough" and abandoned it after about fifty pages. If you read earlier installments and enjoyed them, you might enjoy this one. If you did not read earlier ones, I advise you not to start with this one. This review is based on an advance reader's copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )