I am so far behind. I have been swamped with work and not able to read ebooks at all. I am about 70% through and still not sure where the story is headed. That's good though that it's still a mystery. I do like the writing though - the imagery with the sights and sounds of the animals in addition to the atmosphere and weather details - help to contribute to the suspense and emotional response.
Interesting analysis, Anothercat. I will post more when I finish. Thanks for sharing your next adventure!
Your comments earlier about Valentine's Day were a surprise to me. I did not know that people in other English-speaking countries did not take the day so seriously and it was more a recent commercial development. When I was a kid, we decorated boxes in school and everyone bought mini-cards to school to put in the boxes. It was a big deal every year to pick out what theme cards you were going to give away (like with popular cartoon characters, I mean). Also, I know in the Victorian era they had some beautiful artistic cards. It is fun to do an internet search and look at the images. I used to keep some of the images as my screensaver on my old Sony 350 reader.
A positive bonus - I have learned many Australian slang words that I had to look up in the dictionary.
EDIT: I also meant to add that I did an internet search on Valentine's Day traditions across the globe and it was fun reading. They are so varied. And many celebrate on totally different days - it's not a universal February 14th thing.