I actually found this book somewhat deftly written - mainly due to there being a lot of cleverly used words in it - until about one-fourth into it, which is when I got into the rhythm of the book. Without spoiling anything, that's when it became a bit more interesting to me.

However, the cleverness of the book is also its biggest pratfall. Even though 19th century lingo is 19th century, this seemed like an exercise in not following Mark Twain's adage, where he said: "Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do".

The plot wore too thinly for me across the book, and I missed both atmosphere and more flavours. It was a bit too hard to swallow for me (pun most definitely intended).