The book is so boring and so unsatisfactory, I don't know how critics think fans won't be disappointed. The story within a story goes as far as to suggest (or am I imagining it) that the author makes fun of her readers suggesting the immensely bored Lord Aubrey is bored to tears by the immensely popular detective novels one of the members of "the group of friends" writes. Is it a reference to us "poor readers" that put up with such lame plots?