[sun surfer]

I've actually done really good with staying on track reading this, though I'm not finished yet. I am over 80% through though and on the home stretch. I'm really enjoying this and think I'll be done within the week. Since I'm not done yet I will temporarily bow out of the thread until I am done so that anyone can feel free to discuss end-book spoilers now that the time for discussing the complete book is on.

I will say that though everything hasn't been revealed to me yet [major spoilers coming now so stop reading this post if you're not about 4/5 or farther into the book yet!] (I'm at the point where Hartright is discovering the marriage registry forgery) I think I did pretty well with my initial guesses considering I now realise I was more or less still in the 'prologue' of the book and hadn't even really met Sir Percival yet. I still can't completely shake the feeling there might be a surprise reveal later because I'm so used to them from modern mysteries and thrillers. Having originally had Miss Halcombe on my suspect list, for instance, has the possibility of her and/or Hartright's narratives being unreliable and one or both still being a culprit in some way with Laura/Anne who is currently living with them as the victim. However, I think it much more likely that the story is taking the much more straightforward path of all the narratives being reliable and all the coincidences being truly coincidental.

Anyway, I feel the story has been masterfully told so far. For instance, every new revelation in turn still seems to leave a question of if the new reality is this or that. I find that most mysteries, after revelations start to come, clear up in my head quickly. But with this book it's not the case. Collins has the power to continue a story that is supposedly becoming more clear in a just as befuddling way as it was prior. A major one was Laura's death, which immediately had me thinking that I'd discovered the truth that she'd been switched for Anne obviously, leaving Laura still alive. Then a little later the book brings this possibility up itself and continues to make me question whether, just perhaps, Laura maybe really had died and Hartright and Miss Halcombe were now living with Anne taking on the identity of Laura.

I'll wait to answer the questions on what I thought of the whole book until I'm finished, but I'm looking forward to it.