Things change when he begins to see the ghosts of soldiers plus someone called Benedict Boniface and then things take on an even more sinister turn as John is injured and winds up having to be placed in a sanitarium and weaned off of heavy drugs for pain. While Doyle takes more trips back in time and eventually deals with prisoners, deaths and the war including information about Harry Houdini.

As a result of the battlefield accident he often sees the ghosts of dead soldiers talking to him and haunting his dreams. Later he is transferred to a military intelligence unit as a Lieutenant and finds himself back in touch with Doyle. Time travel is in their blood and they want to revisit feudal Japan never expecting to be in London’s Elizabethan Era. The scenes are graphically depicted and the author’s research into each time period is extensive.

Every chapter has its own special scenes as both Doyle and Scott harbor their interests in going back in time. Doyle Japan and China while Scott to many places where he is a soldier, at times during a mission finding himself talking to Carl Jung and understanding his feelings and dealing with the things that strike a chord with him. He is in constant need of counseling at times but when he is injured and is finally promoted to a higher position he and Doyle connect and things take on a different air one that is cold and filled with uncertainty and ice. Doyle and Scott met at a dinner party and when John asked to have a moment what was set in motion changed their friendship forever. Hoping that he would resume writing his Sherlock Holmes stories he was informed that these stories were not on his list of important matters and Doyle had other ambitious endeavors.

Hoping in some way he could make him endorse his other writings failed and the situation between them should have make Scott realize that everyone he encounters in this story is primarily there for their own self-worth and gratification. Lies, deceptions, hopes that are shattered and each time he provided the lodestones or minerals needed for Doyle to operate his own time machine, and then introducing himself to Wells should have alerted him to the fact that the only person he could rely on was himself.

Captain Bartholomew and Finn will guide you in the final scenes, the plays that are enacted, the actors that are on stage and the moment when the curtain was lowered for the final time. This is a story about deceptions, army encounters, hopes, trust, betrayals, fears spies and suspicion and one man John Patrick Scott who recounts his time with Witt and Wendell, his regrets, his recriminations and what Finn does at the end when a dinner party ends in boredom and the cast of ghosts take center stage. Where will life take John next? Will he continue at the conservatory and teach music, will his days and nights be plagued with wanting to escape the here and now or will he realize that time is limited to everyone and he needs to decide where his life will go. The surprise ending that you will read on the last page will allow readers to understand his journey is far from over.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews