Kit Livingstone met his great grandfather and discovered the truth about ley lines in The Skin Map. One part of the map has been found, and Kit is on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of those who would bring the pieces together for dark purposes. The race takes him across space and time as both good and evil forces vie to discover the secrets of the bone house. VERDICT This taut thriller is full of rich imagery and will appeal equally to readers of suspense and fantasy. For fans of Ted Dekker.

Lawhead's second Bright Empires time-travel tale (after May's The Skin Map) is an incoherent collection of storylines populated by an unwieldy cast of thinly drawn characters. Series protagonist Kit Livingstone wanders through early 19th–century Egypt and an alternate timeline populated by cavemen in the still-incomplete quest for the Skin Map, which holds the secret of the ley lines that make time travel possible and is the key to a further mystical secret involving the mysterious Well of Souls. Kit is a passive victim, spending much of his time lost or confused, while his girlfriend Wilhelmina, an improbably competent ley-traveler, makes excursions from 17th-century Prague to offer cryptic guidance. The threat of the villainous Archelaeus Burleigh fades, as he makes few appearances outside childhood flashbacks. Succeeding only at frustrating the reader with the jumble of unresolved mysteries and subplots, Lawhead leaves an initially promising series in utter disarray. (Sept.)