This book seemed to have the supernatural or ancient artifact/mystery given contemporary relevance themes that I like, so I read it the first week of our vacation while we were cruising up the Danube. But I was disappointed. While the introduction was outstanding, the writing was good, and the characters well drawn and interesting, the book was almost totally without plot until halfway through (the complete absence of any activity actually got funny after a while because these very interesting characters were doing absolutely nothing to advance any plot), and after that it was uncomfortably like trying to decipher a Pokemon game where you don't know the cast or the rules.
The plot as described involves some supernatural beings trying to do something, but the dust jacket is far more informative than the actual text because you don't get that in any way, shape, or form after the introduction until the book's ending begins. And then you don't understand who is what and you never figure out what they are trying to do or why. The is some great writing, I have to say, but the strongest impression I got toward the end was that the author was trying to leave some threads for a sequel. And I could dimly see that a sequel might explain this possibly interesting world. Because this book really didn't. The supernatural aspect was just introduced too late and with no grounding to give you any basis for buying into the author's world.