Book #23–Now and Then

Another Donovan Creed novel. Now and Then is again a split book, with the first half (Now) being the present day. The second half (Then) takes us back 300 years.

Creed is vacationing in St. Albans in Florida, with Rachel from the previous book. He’s at an old bed and breakfast that is struggling, but he decides to become the cook and handyman, pushing Rachel to be the waitress. He’s dealing with broken people, in a number of ways, and while dodging a killer he doesn’t realize is after him, A very Dorsey like situation, he stumbles on a mystery in the town and investigates.

The second half of the book is somewhat the basis for his investigation, the events of 300 years ago and the same town with the pirate, Gentleman Jack Hawley, having a run-in in the town.

You can almost see the characters from the past and present are similar, but there aren’t exact matches. It’s a fun, almost silly, set of stories. They don’t quite conclude, but leave the final results to your imagination. In some ways, I love this technique. It’s fun, thought don’t expect things to tie up nicely with a bow at the end.