First things first: Mystery isn't my preferred genre. That being said, I do like a little mystery in what I read, so it's not a totally new genre for me.

Oh, and note, 3 starts on Goodreads still means I liked it... so, yeah...

The opening chapters were AMAZING! I was totally drawn into those battlefield scenes... I do kind of wish the rest of the book had been like that.

As for the mystery... well... When it finally played out, if felt a bit like an episode of "Castle"... you know, when they finally pick the bad guy and then they give the audience a run down of how it all worked. The main difference is that in "Castle" (or similar shows), the good guys don't know the answers till the end, either... The run down they give is what they've just worked out, too... I felt that in this case, Shaw had kept some of his conclusions from me, and I'm not a fan of that.

Of course, I kept trying to figure out the truth as I read... I certainly had my ideas. They didn't play out. (My ideas were probably too cliched, anyway)

I think this one is a debut novel, though? Shows huge promise. As I said, those opening chapters... wow. They were really good. I'll be interested to see what kind of stories Mr. Chamberlain has gone on to write since.