I agree that the middle was written with a great deal of drive, and I was very interested to see the solution to the middle mystery, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the book as a whole. The writing wasn't good (on the language level -- he clearly knew how to construct suspense in the middle), and the characters were mediocre. I agree completely about the beginning and the end. The beginning seemed to promise a lot for the end, but none of that was fulfilled. I think he needed a better editor.