Heather’s Bookshelf: Book of the Elder Wisdom
Author: R. Walter Dalton
Released: 08/31/20
Genre: Fiction with aspects of SciFi
“And so now we were at the end, it seemed, of the chain of events initiated by my first encounter with the Anasazi tower — if it had ever actually existed in the form that I remembered at all. Yet my recollection of it, so forcefully imprinted by horror, was so clear…”
“Book of the Elder Wisdom” introduces our protagonist who is a self-proclaimed amateur archaeologist who has happened upon a peculiar finding. He enlists the help of his friend Phil and finds himself in the middle of a mystery. While investigating, they also happen across the Church of the Elder Wisdom, an organization that somehow seems wrapped up in this tale.
The investigation leads them to find a strange connection between a murder in Skid Row and the Church of the Elder Wisdom. The members of the church are also very interested in the protagonist as they see a resemblance between him and his long passed relative who used to be a writer and plays a particular role in their belief system. He ends up being placed in a trance state where he is transported to different places in time through a mysterious connection with his relative.
After his strange trip, he finds himself somehow returned to his home and the FBI calling him into their office. He ends up agreeing to embed himself in the Church of the Elder Wisdom while acting as an informant for the FBI.
Trigger Warning: images of violence, kidnapping
Overall, I was a little confused by the direction of this novel. It seemed like two different stories intertwined into one. The first was a murder mystery rooted in history and the second was a SciFi story rolled into a religion. The beginning of the story was intriguing to me and I enjoyed the connections to the protagonist’s family. I also enjoyed connection to the FBI and the undercover aspect. Unfortunately, the SciFi portions/trance states were quite confusing and did not hold my attention. The ending of the story tries to tie in both sides of the tale, but instead of feeling like a conclusion, it feels like an afterthought. I think that this story had a lot of good ideas, but didn’t quite come together in the end.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A story that went in two very different directions. The ending tries to tie everything back together, but lacks in clarity.
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