First, even given the untoward events on the night of his initiation, would Stephanos as a mystes reveal as much as he does about the Eleusinian mysteries?
Second, and perhaps more significantly for the shape of the book, Aristotles' philosophical theme for this book is ethics, and in particular the ethical problem of whether ends justify means. Whether designedly or not, the crimes of the Daidoukhos and the Eleusinian ring of thieves who are trying to raise money for the building of the Ploutinion serves as an illustration of that very point. Unfortunately, the revelation of their involvement in the denouement and the subsequent deaths mean that we never really get to explore their motivation except with the bare statements usual in uncovering the villain in a traditional detective story. I felt the whole book suffered because of this and that their side of the story and the attempted justifications they might have offered would have much improved it.
Having said all that, I'm looking forward to the next one whenever it comes out.
