The excruciating detail of where the files, manuscripts and documents came from and in what period they were written was too, too much! One cannot know enough to know if there really was a Sultan Mahmet the Fourth or if Kostova just invented it and who cares anyway. Let's get on with the story.
At least 500 pages of this sort of obscure obfuscation could have been eliminated and still kept the flavor of the search.
And what about the young teenage girl? Do we ever know her name?
So why spend a 1000 pages developing and then abruptly tie all the loose ends up in 10 pages?!
Most unsatisfactory. And a movie based on this book, egads!
If kostova's subsequent efforts are like this one, I will not be a reader.