I picked up this item in an airport while on my way to New York to deliver a seminar in upper Manhattan. I rarely ever read novels, but I read this one in two days during my off-hours of that Manhattan seminar. Preston is a brilliant writer and this one is best classified as “historical fiction” for he did an enormous amount of credible research in putting it together. If you’re up for a page-turner, you won’t be disappointed with this book. But it is gruesome — in fact, disturbing — in places.