Hmm. The last 20% of this book was a bit dragged out, the denouement kind of came out of nowhere, and the ending was cluttered and unpolished, but I like Pendergast's eccentric character and enjoy the books in this series. There was a high "ew factor" to this story, but the authors do such a good job setting scenes, developing characters, and building suspense, they made it impossible for me to put this book down, no matter how bloody and gore-splattered the pages became.