At the risk of appearing to swim against the tide, I didn't find this a particularly thrilling book (the description of it as a 'literary thriller' is difficult to swallow). It wore its intellectual pretensions firmly on both sleeves, and risked being overwhelmed by those at the cost of the story. The attempt at a twist in the tail is heavy handed and largely pointless, as it doesn't add anything to the plot as such.
But in places it is very well written, with some lovely turns of phrase. Unfortunately the sum of the parts in this case is insufficient to win me over. Perhaps if the lead characters had been more likeable (and dare I say believable) it would have been different. I wondered at times whether the Germanist would be better off swapping places with the novelist, given her sociopathic tendencies. The parallel was doubtless intended, but the novelist seemed considerably more sane!
The quality of the writing has much to offer, I just did not find the story particularly engaging, or the main characters any more so.