I loved the first section. It was compelling and kept me eagerly reading, waiting to see what was about to happen. Theo was well depicted as a boy on the verge of adolescence, discovering a sudden interest in girls. And seeing the confusion and terror of the aftermath of the explosion through his eyes was outstanding.

But after that it stopped working so well. The writing was still good. There was just too much of it, with too much padding. So when, after slogging nearly to the bitter end, I read how Theo condensed the whole story - as much as possible - to tell to Hobie, I nearly cried. Why couldn't have Tartt done the same for us?

I think that, on the whole, this was a good book. But a brutal editor would have made it so much better.