Several reviewers have pointed out what they believe to be the novel's major flaw: Almost any reader is going to solve the mystery of the undead Arbuthnot before getting half way through the novel. A much greater flaw than the easily-solved mystery is the use of the Beast as a kind of phantomof-the-opera figure lurking about the back lots of Maximus Films. The idea of transplanting the classic figure from the cellars of an opera house to the dark old sets of an aging motion-picture studio is a cliche; it has been the central plot of some uninspired madefor-television movies.

The transparency of the mystery is not a major obstacle to enjoying the novel. Instead, it provides a structure which Bradbury uses to establish the central aspect of the novel — its blending of fantasy and reality. Maximus Films, like other Hollywood studios, has been manufacturing fantasies for...