The Last Equation of Isaac Severy

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs

    Isaac Severy is a mathematical genius. He knows he’s going to die.  He’s figured out the day and time and prepares breakfast for himself and his killer.  Just after he’s gone, his adopted granddaughter, Hazel, receives a letter from him telling her there will be more deaths, and there are people who would love to get their hands on his equation. She is told to find it.  She is told to trust no one.

     But she does.  How can she help it?  She is completely out of her league.  Being adopted she missed out on the genius gene pool.  She’s the owner of a failing bookstore.  She doesn’t even live in the same city so she isn’t aware of the circle of dangerous characters who will be trying to beat her to the prize.  In his note her grandfather said he was leaving his equation with the one least likely to be suspected. She struggles with why she was chosen to find  and pass it on to the one person her grandfather trusted before the untrusted ones find it.   Because I’m cynical and question stories I wondered why her grandfather didn’t leave the equation with his most trusted person himself.  But that comes out later. Surely Hazel can trust the family?

     Hazel does have one thing.  She has the clues, even if she has to figure them out.  Hidden in her favorite book, the clues do come to light but with a struggle. There are a lot of family members of several generations in this story and sometimes keeping them straight can be a tangle but maybe this one shouldn’t be read at 1 a.m. like I was doing.  There are several “ah ha!” moments and one very loud gasp moment so while the book may be a quieter chase to the finish (no car chase scenes) it is a chase.

     Like I said, I’m a little cynical about books like this, I try to find the surprise element before it surfaces but I promise, I gasped, I was surprised and completely satisfied with the ending.  If you enjoy the-clue-is-in-the-book stories, this one works.