700 pages and I was sad to read the last one. This is a beautifully written book, part travelogue, part mystery. It is written in first person from the standpoint of 4 characters...some from letters and some from diary excerpts. I enjoyed my armchair travels though what remains of Medieval Europe...always looking for the next clue with a wary eye looking backwards to see who or what might be following. The author does a good job of tying up loose ends but sometime this ends up as being trite. I think it is difficult, in this day and age where so much has happened, to write about things that a supremely evil w/o being trite.