I took an English 200 level class once where the Professor explained to us that that particular book we were reading together had a perfect start. He lectured and tested us on his theory. Well, Mr. Elliot stole that Professor’s theory. The theory proposed the writer need present the reader with a blank canvas and then paint it with his prose in the readers mind’s eye. The writer we studied had characters appear out of fog a lot so as to use his words as a literal brush to aid the reader’s minds eye. Tom did this with character background and I fell for it. I painted the characters easily. Great job of writing! Trouble is, I think Tom got his own mind’s eye trapped, filled in the characters like I did, got lost in the story like I did, and could not plot veer to go back and grab the initial mystery of the book!.