This still has plenty of the engrossing virtues of the earlier volume, but some of the story tie-ups are less satisfying than the ones in volume 4, and there are ultimately too many younger-generation characters who are never fully fleshed out.

And this is a minor complaint, but the revelation of just HOW LITTLE the Cazalet brothers know about business is pretty hard to swallow. Seriously, no one at their company reads the mail from the bank and passes it on to management? They never asked their accountants for input all the time they were arguing about whether to buy or sell parts of the business? I mean, maybe this is really what the upper classes did? Astonishing if true.