Prayers in Steel

I liked the Amra Thetys books - and look forward to reading volume 5. This one didn't spark the same degree of enthusiasm. It's not that the characters are uninteresting, or that the story is flat. Perhaps it's the setting. The Amra books take place in city scapes where you might come across the Grey Mouser on any corner, while this one seems more confined, lurking in the same kind of territory as Garth Nix's The Old Kingdom, which I didn't like much at all. There's also quite a lot of explanatory text, mainly when the wicked witch is on scene (particularly in the second volume). I'll probably read volume three, but I do hope it perks up a bit.