I finished The Twelve while riding in a train carriage across bushland in Oz at night. Which is not a bad surrounding for a story about a vampire blighted apocalyptic wasteland of future America. Thing is while I am still very interested in what is coming next - and obviously I do like what I am reading, because I have flown through both Cronin's books in the series - I have to admit I felt a little left down by this one.

Part of it was the opening with the fake Biblical verse summarising the previous book. That was a small thing, but it left a sour taste in the mouth because it was so bloody silly. Then we have the jump back to Year Zero again and discover that a number of characters we thought we dead survived - some thrive even. Having finished The Passage, with references made to this story being recounted in a thousand years time, it was bothersome to skip backwards again instead of forwards.

Also then there was the inclusion of rape in the story - ugh.

Has anyone else read The Twelve yet and felt similarly?