I found it unbelievable that a seasoned detective would allow a complete stranger to basically take control of his investigation on the day after the crime was committed. Alistair Sinclair appears out of the blue and declares he knows who did it and why and proceeds to drag Ziele into his camp. Our detective, Simon Ziele basically moves into Sinclair's office and uses his people for investigation into a crime that has obviously been committed by one of Sinclair's people. It isn't until over half (maybe even 2/3) of the way through the book that Ziele realizes (well actually he is told) that something is wonky. And even then, he continues to use these same people for everything, including interviewing suspects. That is beyond ridiculous. This entire situation didn't ring true, even in 1905 I would think someone inserting themselves into the investigation would have been suspect.Regardless, I did like Simon but a touch more personality would have been a plus. He really was just emotionless (as were all the other characters). Oh sure he had problems (which was why he was in that small town in the first place) and his troubles were alluded to once or twice but his history was basically hidden until the end and by then it was too late to connect with him or his pain. I didn't find anyone to be likable and it was hard to get involved with any of them. I did find the beginnings of criminology and scientific techniques to be interesting though Sinclair was a know-it-all and a bore.
