Instruct: Classify the given review as either positive or negative.
Query: Waltz of Shadows

Although a notch below his mature work as he concedes, Lansdale is in fine form here. One might want to read his later work first to be more forgiving about plot and character flaws in early work like this (for example in this book and "Cold in July", his protagonists are broadly drawn without the vivid personality of a Hap or Leonard in that series). Although the villains and their evil deeds are extreme in true Lansdale fashion, he anchors them sufficiently in reality to make them truly menacing, thus separating him from the majority of the thriller pack with their cardboard or unbelievable villains.