Genre: Speculative
Fiction
Description:
Finn runs a book shop which makes very
little money. This is largely because he is a dippy sort of young man whose
priorities are mainly beer and girls. He is also a rare book collector. In one lot
of rare books he acquires a puzzling set of six books which he can’t remember
buying. They were all published in the nineteenth century (apparently) and
detail history they ought not to know about – yet they are accurate in every
particular. Finn becomes desperate to read them all and gets himself into some
very peculiar scrapes in order to do so.
Surrounding this central thread is his
developing relationship with Maia, who he meets at his best friend’s wedding.
Author:
The author is from Ontario in Canada (where
the book is set). She is a graduate of Waterloo university and her day job is
in Marketing. This is her fourth novel. Her website is here.
Appraisal:
The reader is given potted histories from
each book as Finn proceeds with what quickly becomes obsessive reading. As they
are standard school history book stuff, they don’t enhance plot development or
pace, although the author does point out the horror of the apparently never-ending
mass murders recent history has witnessed.
Finn’s increasing desperation to finish his
reading does communicate itself to the reader: I felt his frustration,
and need for haste, because of course it is the book which details his own time
and beyond which he desperately wants to read.
Fortunately, at the point where Finn is
finally ready to read the sixth book the story broadens out into a genuinely
interesting mystery. Thus, as the Goons used to say, “this is where the story
really starts”.
I found the two major protagonists, Finn and
his girlfriend Maia, unsympathetic. Nor could I see why either one would date
the other until the sixth book comes into its own, when the reasons for them
being as they are, meeting, and becoming lovers make perfect sense. Both characters
are essential to the story.
Finn never names a rare book he has bought
or one that he wants to buy, and seems only to buy them in job lots. I confess
I found it difficult to believe that this lad’s lad was a collector of them.
I have tried, but still cannot understand
why Finn didn’t just dip into the first five books enough to satisfy himself
that what they recounted was accurate. He could have done that in an evening.
So, for me, the novel could have had a lot
of flabbiness removed from around its middle. But the denouement is certainly
worth your time.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ***
Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words
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