It's hard to accurately judge a mystery thriller that's only half-complete. The undeniable strength of the story so far is its compelling cast of characters, each one with her own hidden depths and all collectively with histories and interactions between them that unfold before the player's eyes. This is a good sign: these relationships are the threads from which the fabric of a good mystery is woven.

But Misericorde cuts a lot of checks for drama in its first volume that as yet we can only hope get covered in the finale. A story like this lives and dies by its meticulous attention to plotting detail, and the indicators so far have been mixed. There are certainly some compelling twists, turns, and foreshadowings in this volume alone; but there's also a fair amount of awkward maneuvering just to get the right characters having conversations, as well as the occasional seeming plot hole and anachronism.

But I don't want to second guess this too much when much is left unknown. I'm foregoing a rating for this entirely because it's simply not finished, and unlike some genres it's impossible to truly judge this without knowing the full arc of the plot. I will certainly say this much: I'm plenty compelled to want to pick up the next one as soon as it drops.