Natchez burning

I was so ready to recommend this book to others until I got to about page 200 or so. At that point, the story started getting sillier and the repetition increased. By the end, I was skimming.

Also, at the beginning, the author did a good job putting you in each character's shoes and using the change in point of view to move the story to interesting places. By the end, it was gimmicky and sloppy. Some of the characters also were cardboardy or just poorly drawn; I usually like strong females, but Caitlin Masters ended up being a shrill harpy. And black female sexuality was depicted in ways I haven't seen in decades.

I understand that Greg Iles had a terrible car accident while writing this book. While he had to make a valiant effort to recuperate, it doesn't excuse this book. Why wasn't the editor able to take this in hand and do something with it?