Entanglement - Andrew J Thomas

Description

Five friends, four mysteries, three deaths, two road trips and a secret that will change the world ...

Entanglement is a quirky mystery with a sci-fi twist that’s influenced by the humour of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman.

David Marston drops out of contact, and his fiancé is worried. A secret research base vanishes, and MI5 is nervous. Then a colony of moles goes missing, an ordinary house brick appears out of thin air, and intertwined with it all is the story of a woman continually shifting between parallel worlds. But how can all this possibly be connected? And why are cakes so important?

Entanglement is a warm, funny and original tale about friendship, loss and coping when you’re out of your depth. It also invites the reader to ask, “What if?” What if that person at university had said yes? What if you hadn’t answered that voicemail?

Review

I love time travel books and whilst this isn't strictly time travel, it's time displacement! As the travel is from one parallel world to another.  Now, apparently something has to exist in all parallel worlds in exactly the same form and it's CAKE! Which I was very pleased about!

The book is written very much in the style of Douglas Adams and at times I almost felt the lines had been lifted and reworded from THHGTTG. It also reminded me of the Jasper Fforde novels, so needless to say if you've enjoyed either of those writers, you will enjoy this book. If you are more serious minded and don't like frivolity, or seemingly senseless ideas then this is not the book for you. For instance in the library Three Little Pigs is filed under Construction and Project planning not nursery rhymes, as it's seen as construction best practices!

I have a slight criticism regarding the dialogue, as at times it read more like it was written by Enid Blyton for The Famous Five, slighty too formal and staged for the 21st century to my liking. Also the footnotes. On a kindle it is a little annoying to try to keep going backwards and forwards, not like a paperback where you can just flip to the end.

What kept the book afloat was the fabulous mystery and the documentation of travel between the parallel worlds. I was certainly kept entertained and when the little twist came ( I hadn't seen it coming) it was certainly an "ah ha" moment the author can be proud of.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC to review.