A science fiction twist on the mystery genre — each morning a man, who can’t even remember his own name, wakes up in a different body at a party in the country. Each night, the daughter of the hosts dies. It is his job to solve the mystery to break the cycle. But where to begin?

“My dear man, what on earth happened to you?” he asks, concern crumpling his brow. “Last I saw —” … “We must fetch the police,” I said, clutching his forearm. pg 7

As the man lives the same day again and again, he discovers that he is not the only one trying to solve this mystery. And none of the people in the house are who they appear to be.

“A party?” she says, shaking her head. “Oh, my dear man, you really have no idea what’s happening here, do you?” pg 48

Any readers out there watch the television show, Quantum Leap, in the 80’s and 90’s? (It may be on Netflix now too, I don’t know.) I devoured that show every time it was on.

The television show is about a doctor named Sam Beckett who enters a time travel/quantum physics experiment and it goes terribly wrong. He finds himself stuck in the body of other people throughout history. He has to solve a mystery or right a wrong in each life and then he “leaps” into somebody else.

From the introduction to Quantum Leap: “And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.”

This story is quite similar to a mystery version of that show.

“Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder, and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.” pg 68

I enjoyed it immensely. My only complaint is that the introduction is completely baffling until the author begins to drop clues about what’s going on. Other than that, prepare yourself for a twisting, complex ride through the same day, over and over again.

“Somebody wants me dead.” It feels strange to say it out loud, as though I’m calling fate down upon myself, but if I’m to survive until this evening, I’ll need to face down this fear.” pg 34

It doesn’t sound like very much fun, but similar to the film Groundhog Day, the reader soon discovers that much more goes on in one day than can be entirely lived through one viewpoint or life.

This book helped me ponder how complex life actually is. Imagine everything you’re missing by living each day in just one body.

Highly recommended for science fiction and mystery fans.

Thanks for reading!

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