It took Laurie the good half of the book to set the scene for the events that followed. And the events that followed did not develop with any degree of satisfaction. If you're Murakami, you can spend half the book describing the thoughts your hero's having while sitting at the bottom of a well. But Laurie R. King is no Murakami. I did not care for the religious angle and unfortunately the rest of the story did not amount to anything worth reading.