Irving Belateche

There was no character in this book I liked. It was written well but not well enough to keep me reading it because I had nobody to root for. I ended up skimming through the second half until the last two chapters.

I love a good time travel story. This is a decent one. Clunky dialog and a plot that felt forced at times kept this from being truly great. There's nothing new here. The whole "time travel is messy" as if it's supposed to be revolutionary or something falls flat. Largely because it's something that we, as the reader, pretty much already know. The main character is a little to "perfect" and always gets to where he needs to, even if he does something that should erase him from the time line. show more

It's a fun book and shouldn't take you long to read it, but don't expect anything new. show less

Author Belateche provides us with a tale reminiscent of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, albeit a bit briefer and a bit more accessible.

In this tale, widowed librarian John Grant receives a message threatening the life of his 7-year-old son unless John can identify who it is who is threatening him. He has little more than 48 hours in which to solve the mystery. Trying to unravel the puzzle leads John to relive a night from his childhood when he and his two childhood friends camped out in show more a Virginia park.

The book involves John's search through vague literary references to identify the mystery killer. Some of the references are fairly cogent, while others seem to stretch the imagination a bit too far; in some cases it seems like the solutions to pieces of the puzzle are so vague that their explanation might come off as a bit contrived. As with Kostova's book, Belateche takes the reader on a journey into the past, as John discovers that his son's would-be killer has roots that date back to pre-colonial Virginia.

The book is well written and entertaining. It makes for a nice casual read. show less

A fun story with a novel take on time travel and a well-paced, clever little plot around Einstein's final days. September 2020