The idea of a mystery series set in Camelot with Merlin as the chief detective appealed to me, but I ended up disappointed with this book. There were too many anachronisms; at times it seemed like the author was trying to set the story in a specific time period, but the effect fell flat. The characters were supposedly Dark Age Britons but they talked like modern day people. It just felt disjointed and uneven to me. Some major events were described in an off-handed way. That being said, it was an intriguing idea and I did enjoy several of the characters. ( )