Another annoying habit of this author is to characterize persons in such a way that when the story was over, you don't really understand them at all.

For instance [STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS]

The Justice who is murdered is said to be a good, moderate man. There is evidence that he disapproved of a friend's reputation as a womanizer and was angry with him for making a pass at his own faithful wife. You are led to believe that he and his wife had a good marriage and throughout the story, his step-daughter (a very intelligent young woman) shows that she had cared about him very much and also admired him and her mother.

However, you find out later that the Justice was having an affair with his clerk. The author throws in the detail that the wife, who was very wealthy, did not marry the man until her daughter left for college because she had a relative whose daughter was molested by a step parent. Later the clerk supposedly calls the wife and tells her that the Justice married her to "get to" the step-daughter. Double yuck and with no evidence either.

I just hate it when the solution to the murders of a Supreme Court Justice and others is "a crazed killer who murders for reasons that don't make sense except to him". Ugh.

Lastly, I hate ghost stories and in this story, the author had to throw in a subplot with a ghost. When I read a mystery, I don't want supernatural "help" showing the detective what to do. I don't think it's romantic - I think it's stupid.

Needless to say, I won't be picking up another book by Catherine Coulter.