We asked the 6 members who came to book club to discuss the Fig Eater to rate it on a scale of 1-10, 1 being absolutely horrible and 10 being absolutely wonderful. 3 of the 6 gave it a 0. I gave it the highest number with a 5. The chief complaint about this book was all of the extraneous information that the book includes that doesn't further the story and doesn't seem relevant to anything except the author showing off her research. Every mystery throws in a few "red herrings" to push a reader off the trail, but the amount of red herrings in this book was exhausting. Also, there were SO MANY threads left hanging at the end that 2 people said they threw the book when it abruptly ended. It's redeeming quality is that it made for entertaining discussion because everyone wanted to talk about what they hated most about the book.