Book Review – Well In Time

Well In Time by Suzan Still – In a story that ranges from ancient Egypt to medieval Europe and the present day, we follow Calypso Searcy is a writer with an ability to see the future through her dreams.  That power comes to her through a golden locket.  She and her lover Javier must defend the ranch they have created in Mexico against Mexican drug cartels.  While Javier remains behind Calypso and a friend flee through underground tunnels.  They will eventually find their way to a mysterious group called the Ghosts, who may present just as great a danger as the cartel.

This is a story that brings a strong mystical aspect to its story telling.  Calypso walks along a line that divides worlds and slowly explores her ability to stand in either or both worlds.  There are two things that stand out quickly.  First, that Still is a solid story teller.  She can create a world that draws you into it.  Relatively early on she takes us deep into the ground through tunnels that slowly begin to constrict around her characters.  I had to put the book down about half way through that passage because the feeling of the walls closing in was so vivid.  Like her characters, I eventually made it through.

The second is that the author loves language.  She plays with it and weaves it into something beyond simple story telling.  At its best she creates an almost poetic approach to the story.  The difficulty, at least for me, is that she sometimes loses sight of the story in her love of language.  A single descriptive passage is buried under another and then another.  Some of the imagery felt like over reaches for me.  That became a persistant, ongoing distraction to me.  My taste is toward a sparer story telling style.  As such writers like Still never quite gain the grip on me that they might.

If, on the other hand, you like your writing a bit more fulsome and a story of the metaphysical,  then you may truly enjoy this book.

“Well In Time” hits the shelves January 20, 2015.

RATING – *** Worth A Look