Even though I struggled, I wanted it to be longer? [Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott]

I don't know if it's an issue of edition or what, but the eBook of Andrew Caldecott's Rotherweird numbered in total 410 pages. On GoodReads however the page count is 480. Early into my reading of Rotherweird the set-up of a secretive town with a hidden past grabbed me quick and hard. As I read through, at times there seemed to be jumps in plot action, character knowledge and motivation. Originally published in 2017, Quercus published the edition I read in 2019. If the book was re-edited for a tailor to a new international audience I don't know, but sometimes I think I could have used a bit more. And that's funny because per the acknowledgements there was a culling of "surplus scenes and minor characters."

I'm not too used to, at least in recent times, reading books whose main body of text is preceding my a character listing. I went back and forth between my desktop and mobile eReaders, the latter proving especially helpful with regards to bookmarking the aforementioned list for referencing as I read. The culling of minor characters I can understand because keeping track of players in the story was a struggle. Add in that characters are learned to be known by pseudonyms and that not every significant player was named in said list, the reading became that much more tedious.

The story itself, overall, catches my interest not for the so-far convoluted tangled web of a story, but for the quirks and relationships of and between individual characters. I'd become invested in the truths, secrets, and the justices I wanted to see preferred characters reveal, continue to occult, and mete out. Because of the knot Caldecott built, the questions that need and will no doubt receive answers in subsequent books, I think I will continue and (eventually) read through the (as far as I know) completed Rotherweird trilogy. Shortcomings acknowledged, I'm still giving Rotherweird 4 stars.