Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: had potential, but...

When I first heard about this book, I was all agog- a murder mystery set in the art world! A murderer who stages death as art! But this book proved to be a disappointment. Santlofer shows flashes of brilliance- I thought the elaborate clues provided by the murderer were good, but after a point it was just tediously gory. Definitely a lack of character development and a lot of inconsistencies. Also an arbitrary ending- it seemed like the author found a character in the book and made him the murderer without sufficient background building. The end of a good murder mystery should make you nod in agreement and want to kick yourself for not figuring it out. This one just leaves you bewildered- it could as well have been Person B as Person A. If art is your thing, do read it, but keep your expectations low. And keep an art tome handy to look up the featured art!