Looking at the other reviews, this is clearly a 'Marmite' book. Well I'm in the loved it camp, but I can see why it could disappoint people who picked it thinking they were getting a thriller, because it isn't that kind of story at all.
In fact I think it's quite an existentialist novel. It is basically the story of a young man searching for meaning in a meaningless world, trying (and largely failing) to fill the gap left by an absent (at least to him) God, with skiing, sex and drugs and alcohol. I thought there were a few clues in there that the author intended this reading actually (ok, I can't think of any examples right now, but I thought that when reading it.)
Maybe it wasn't marketed right, because the cover and the description clash with the actual material, I only read it because a friend recommended it. You certainly wouldn't expect to come across the brilliant stand alone stories of Byron and Shelley in a book the publisher's description makes sound more like a crime novel. But the fact that one of the other reviewers here seemed to think they really were written by Byron and Shelley shows how good they were.
I've held off five stars only because I thought the end came a bit quickly (although I guess the end always comes too quickly when you're enjoying a book.)
