Review: 'Journey Into The Past" by Abe F. March

Journey Into The Past by Abe F. March

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The castle ruins and wine villages of Germany's Palatinate region comprise the setting for a sudden romance between San Francisco architect Heather Wilson and retired business consultant Johann Hess in Abe F. March's charming and gently told "Journey Into the Past."

Heather Wilson needs a long vacation after finishing a massive project and, while she has tickets to Tahiti, a poster-sized photograph of Landeck Castle in the cubicle of one the firm's new employees suddenly changes her travel destination and, quite possibly, her life. The twelfth-century German ruin captures her architect's eye. But the man in the photograph, the new hire's uncle, has captured something else, not her heart exactly, but in some odd way her soul; and that night she dreams of another woman in another age almost as though she was there.

Heather flies to Frankfurt and drives two hours to the castle and before she can cross the wooden bridge and go inside, there he is, as though the photograph has come to life. She introduces herself and mentions that she knows his nephew, and soon he has agreed to show her this and other castle ruins along the famous wine route. Their sudden attraction to each other defies logic and--when they touch certain parts of stone walls--the synchronicity of their meeting and their mutual interest in the ruins also defies time.

Abe F. March's characters come from different backgrounds. Wilson is a young, decently divorced professional with an American take-charge attitude. Hess, who has thoroughly integrated his habits and focus into the lifestyle of the region, is older and conservatively formal. He also has an institutionalized wife who has been in a coma for five years. As they tour the region, they discover a strange link between their trip and the events that happened long before they were born.

They have a mystery to solve and they are part of the solution. March, who knows the setting of his story well, has an eye for detail and a veteran storyteller's approach to a good mystery. Why such urgent passion? What's the sense of the dreams and visions of two long-ago star crossed lovers? Heather and Johann's search for answers represents the kind of quest that cannot be denied even though following it through may create a complicated tangle of their lives. March knows how to pull readers into an exciting world and keep them there.


View all my reviews. Reviewed by Malcolm R. Campbell

Comments

[Abe F. March]

Thanks for the review, Malcolm. It was an excellent analysis of the story. The contributing Author, Lynn Jett, made it fun to write.

[Malcolm]

Having fun doing the writing is almost better than looking back at the book once it's done. I enjoyed the book.

Malcolm