A teacher of mine recommended this book to me, saying that all her friends loved it and couldn't put it down, so when it came time to do a critique in her class, I chose this book. Unfortunately, Mr. Pears book was not all that it was cracked up to be. The are too many problems that drag this book down, preventing it from being the masterpiece that many are claiming it to be.  
 
First, there is the narration style: 4 different narrators telling the events the way they saw them, each fingering a different suspect. If the plot had been more gripping, more intense, this would have worked perfectly. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and by the beginning of the third narrator, I did not feel like reader the remaining two parts.  
 
Then there is the narrators themselves. Again, this could have been excellent, save the fact that 2 of the narrartors are so arrogant and full of themselves that it made it hard for me to want to keep reading it.  
 
Finally there was all the historical detail. Mr. Pears obviously spent a lot of time researching to make his book as accurate as possible, including his writing style. I commend him for that, however the details he gives are so numerous that they begin to over shadow the plot. If you like the history behind what each narrator does (i.e. the development of science for Da Cola's tale) then you will enjoy it. If you find any one of the subjects offered (say cryptography) then it will hinder your enjoyment immensly.  
 
I did enjoy reading some of this book, namely Da Cola's tale, and the final tale, but the two tales in the middle dragged too much for me to be able to really recommend this book. It is another case of hype building up to nothing 
