Oh, ok. I think that bit where Nicky talks about how training is for thinking and when you fight you don’t think (talking about fencing with Hugo) makes me buy that the killing was spur of the moment followed by panicked trying not to be caught. I prefer impulsive murders to planned, though, in general.

Toby is the hardest character for me to understand, so I’ve been thinking about him a lot. They are all pretty interesting, though.

I do agree, it doesn’t have that satisfying everything falls into place sort of resolution that I do like in a murder mystery. And now that I am saying that I am reminded of The Eighth Detective and those stories getting reconfigured.

I really liked the way the question of justice vs vengeance vs law is handled.

I agree that the ending wasn't as neat as I usually like my endings to be. I think I'd've been more satisfied if I could see that the murderer was more tortured by what he'd done than we were shown. Nicky seems to be living a fine life as a college don. Maybe if we'd seen something about his life as an undergrad that was very different - more luxurious or extravagant or something - I might've been more OK with it. Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing.

I also was interested in the difference between justice, vengeance, and law, and how the people most affected made the call at the end.

I was also struck by how Jem doesn't seem to know much of anything about any of the group's parents other than Toby's, and then it's only the inheritance stuff that Nicky told him. He knows their social status because of what schools they went to and whose family has money, but nothing about whether the parents were supportive or distant, encouraging or dismissive, etc. We know Jem's parents didn't really understand him but they supported him when he had his breakdown, but there's no mention of what Prue's parents did when she left Oxford or really any of the others except Hugo's putting pressure on anyone writing about the murder. Mind you, I can't say I know much of anything about my college friends' families either but that was rather longer ago than 10 years.

Hm. I don’t know, I do feel like he has been suffering but now I’m wondering if I came to that conclusion too easily.

Well Jem really believes him, but then Jem wants to. I'm not as nice as Jem.

I really really want Jem to be happy, is what it is.

Yep. I really like the way Charles makes us want Jem to have a happy ending.

I started the "Creative Types" romance series by Joanna Chambers and Sally Malcolm. The first book is about a TV writer and his PA who is a secretly a big name fanfic author - it's not quite the gonzo celebration of fandom that Spoiler Alert is, but it's pretty fun. And I didn't realize until maybe halfway through that the TV show in question is centered on a vampire, so I thought I might mention that here in case it was of interest to anyone else

I kind of want to see the show (called Leeches, which is very cute, right?) - not as much as I'd like to watch Sanctuary Moon, but it does sound like the kind of thing I would at least check out

I accidentally bought the first five books in the Temeraire series (I meant to buy only the first one for $1.99 -- the dangers of Distracted Shopping and Amazon's bevy of buttons to click) so ... I hope I like them? I loved the author's Sam and Dean fanfic so much...but I haven't had as much luck with some of her original fiction.

I really enjoyed the Temeraire series! I listened to the audio and could listen again.