This novel encourages readers to aspire to worthy, even extraordinary, goals. Females appear in important roles and are depicted as being active, competent, and successful in ferreting out long-hidden truth. Those few males who are important characters are on equal footing with the females, and people of both genders show appreciation for each other.

Such violence as is referred to—the killing of Domi's father's manservant and the hanging of Domi's father—takes place "offstage." It is clearly subordinate to the intellectual puzzles of proving the innocence of a wronged man and of seeking answers to universal questions.

The novel's heroes are writers, painters, seekers of truth, and people courageous enough to stand up for what they believe. Painters and painting, for example, are at the center of the mystery, and the Chagall painting is the focus of the story's main theme. Statements by...