"King Solomon's Carpet" begins Barbara Vine's slide into mediocrity. With the exceptions, perhaps, of "Gallowglass" and "The Brimstone Wedding" she has been unable to maintain the elegant mix of structure, character, and mood she created in "A Dark Adapted Eye", "A Fatal Inversion", and "The House of Stairs". The characters here are one-dimensional and the plot "twists" are so obvious and well anticipated that they leave you saying to yourself "I knew that!" and "It's about time!" If you are a diehard Rendell/Vine fanatic you will probably like this book; however, if you want something more than a run-of-the-mill suspense novel (which is what you expect from Barbara Vine), indeed if you want some suspense, this book is not for you.