I think the author is too concerned with establishing whether or not the princes, and other European royals, were "guilty", and whether we should regard them as good people. He repeatedly acknowledges that the available evidence is inadequate to the task of establishing either guilt or character, and yet he returns again and again to those questions. The result is what feels like wave after wave of speculation and qualification. I think it would have been a better book if he had focused on what he could prove actually happened, and if he had allowed readers to draw their own conclusions. It is overall a sympathetic portrayal of Europe's royal families. ( )