First in the Barbara Holloway series. I'm planning on reading this series in order; I've read most of them but not all. I know I liked this book the first time I read it, but I was less impressed listening to it. There's an awful lot of overly dramatic imagery - the wind shrieks and wails, the fire mutters, the dark is alive etc etc. I read pretty fast and I expect before I just slid right over most of that. Listening, there's no escape and I thought quite a few times "Just get on with it!". It's an interesting puzzle, albeit with a few too many tangents, and the solution was too pedestrian given the plot Wilhelm set up. Liked the courtroom scenes. Wilhelm manages to make a prickly, reluctant Barbara a likeable character. I thought almost all the supporting characters had good depth but I wasn't convinced by the romance. If this were new to me, I likely wouldn't go on with the series, but eighteen years ago I thought differently. Since they're in my bookcases I know I liked them once. So...more to come.

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