Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: Unputdownable? Hardly!

The Washington Post reviewer said this book was unputdownable. Yet I had to force myself to continue reading after about the first 50 pages. It took McGrath the first half of the book to establish that Harry Peake, although basically a goodheart, was driven insane by his alcoholism and guilt, etc. Enough already -- I got the picture! While Martha was sympathetic in the first half, she became annoying in the second half. She brought about her own downfall with her obsessive (vs. rational) concern about her father. Hard to get into a book when you don't care for the "heroine." Having said all that, I'm glad I read it til the end, to learn that things are not always as they seem. Doubt I'll read anything else by McGrath, though.