Identity and metafiction come head-to-head in this complex capstone to an audacious literary experiment perpetrated by Pat Murphy in this book. In two previous books, Wild Angel and There and Back Again, she laid down the groundwork for the concept of multiple layers of pseudonyms; now she brings it all together in a boundaries-crossing quantum-inspired mystery. Author Max Merriwell, himself one of Pat Murphy’s pseudonyms, is on his yearly cruise while he works on several books (namely, the two named above). However, when Mary Maxwell and Weldon Merrimax, his –own- pseudonyms come to life aboard the ship, it’s up to Max and his new friend, Susan Galina (and her friend, Pat Murphy), to unravel the mystery before anyone gets hurt. As the ship travels into the Bermuda Triangle, things get seriously weird, lines blurring and genres breaking down. Before it’s all over, Max’s nature will come into question, and reality itself will be thrown for a loop.
This isn’t an easy book to read, or a simple concept to follow. Rather, it’s quite daring, both clever and challenging. Taken in concert with the previous books, it puts a whole new spin on what can and can’t be done with the genre, and the nature of identity and perception versus reality.