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Paperback Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-09-2 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 400 pages
  • $13.99
Hardcover Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-08-5 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 400 pages
  • $21.99
Kindle Edition Digital Ebook Purchas Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-10-8 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 459 pages
  • $4.99
Pamela Blake
Author, Contributor
Things Unseen

Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)

Can you trust a clue no one else can see?

Emotionally frigid Walker Clayborne has always preferred the stability of the rock formations he studies to the unpredictable people around him. A cold and unaffectionate upbringing allowed him and his siblings to drift — until the murder of his sister, Claire, propels Walker into a volatile world of strong ideals and spiritual mysticism.

Moved to unearth the truth, Walker visits his sister’s community in search of answers. There he discovers knowledge that challenges his scientific viewpoints — but that offers to reveal crucial clues about Claire’s last minutes.

But in the absence of hard evidence, Walker finds himself at odds with the legal system. And when a friend claims she has “seen” the murder, he must make choices about how to know—and believe—in a world of uncertainty.

Things Unseen is a murder mystery that challenges us to cross and recross the intersections between faith and rationality as we navigate the boundaries of the seen and unseen world.

DISCOVER WHY SOMETIMES THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE THE ONES THE EYE CAN’T SEE.

Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Prose: 9 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 9.00 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot/Idea: This is an intricate, meaty work that mystery lovers will relish. Isaak offers depth and layers of intrigue, alongside a good old-fashioned mystery, with plenty of twists to keep readers invested and on their toes.

Prose: Isaak's writing is top notch—concise, impactful, and tight—with a narrative that is both fast and even, allowing readers to ride shotgun on Walker's mission to find answers.

Originality: Things Unseen is immensely original, melding gripping plot elements with memorable characters. The setting is brought to vivid life, delivering a distinctive backdrop for this riveting story.

Character/Execution: Isaak excels at characterization, especially with Walker, who undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts as he searches for clues about his sister's murder. In the process of uncovering the truth, Isaak also gifts readers with deep insight into the character of Walker's sister.

Date Submitted: May 22, 2024

Reviews
This literary page-turner sets a gripping mystery amid the gorgeous and barren High Desert (and its attendant “occultists, religious groups, UFO abductees, [and] hermits,” as one character puts it) near Joshua Tree as Walker Clayborne, a professor of geology, investigates the murder of his rebel younger sister. Even though the strongest clue at the start is a local seeker’s hallucination, that urgent mission demands getting to know her life with an intimacy he had never before managed as an adult, as he moves into her cottage, tracks down her ex-lovers, visits her church, and discovers that her impassioned activism had won the ire of Universal Waste, the company eager to build what would be “the largest single landfill site in the world.”

Isaak’s novel, written in 2002 and published with four others as part of an inspired posthumous project, will appeal to readers of smart, character-driven mysteries with lots of feeling, a strong sense of place, and opportunities for reflection. The cops suggest that Walker not nose around, and he’s soon attacked by a stranger, threatened by waste-company lawyers, and invited by a visionary physicist to oversee a mysterious experiment. Walker’s colloquies with that physicist, like many of his discussions with the locals, are searching and unsettling in a way that suits the milieu: in places like Mojave, the mind naturally ranges beyond the concrete.

But despite the characters’ spirituality, Things Unseen is beautifully down to Earth. Isaak takes advantage of Walker’s profession to capture landscapes with gorgeous precision, and he brings the same qualities to his handling of local politics and police work, Christian bikers and other hardscrabble residents, and the occasional burst of ugly violence or emotional catharsis. That richness means the novel is a touch long for a mystery, but Isaak deftly builds momentum and suspense while digging deep into character and place, with even the subdued not-quite-a-romance reading as touchingly human. This is a smart, moving pleasure.

Takeaway: Vivid, searching mystery of the American southwest.

Comparable Titles: David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars, Ivy Pochoda’s Wonder Valley.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Kirkus Reviews

In this novel, the murder of his sister sends a geology professor to California’s High Desert on a mission to gain greater understanding of his sibling and ferret out her killer.

Forty-four-year-old L. Walker Clayborne, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of California, San Diego, was preparing to leave on a sabbatical when he received a call from the sheriff in Yucca Valley informing him of his sister Claire’s murder. Now, he is standing in the valley’s hospital morgue staring at Claire’s battered body, remembering how she received that small scar at the top of her lip. He meets police Det. Rick Bolles, and as they talk, he begins to realize how little he really knows about his rebellious sister. Two weeks later, after a funeral held in Phoenix, where the professor, Claire, and their older brother, Edgar, were raised, Walker heads to Joshua Tree, California. Now that the crime tape has been taken down, he enters Claire’s small cottage for the first time. He will soon embark on an investigative, emotional, and metaphysical journey that will challenge his highly focused, carefully organized persona. He has also unknowingly put his own life in danger. That first day he meets one of Claire’s friends, Kirsten Benninger, who shares her suspicions that the murder has something to do with his sister’s involvement with a group protesting “Universal Waste,” an international corporation planning to build the world’s largest landfill in the desert. But this is just one of many possibilities: Claire served as a counselor at Eagle Mountain prison, worked with drug addicts in rehab, and volunteered at a free health clinic that also helped abused women. The police have made scant progress, leaving the heavy lifting to Walker, aided by a devoted and eclectic circle of Claire’s friends.

Isaak’s meticulously detailed prose is engaging from the get-go in this novel published posthumously. The narrative, albeit a bit overpacked, offers something for almost everyone: the geological history of Yucca Valley, implicit social commentary, metaphysical phenomena, fringe group religious zealousness, and, of course, a basic murder mystery. Walker narrates the tale, and readers quickly learn how amusingly controlled he is: “I had to move all my dental items to the right” of the sink. “No matter how you clean an electric razor there are always little whisker fragments, and I tried to make sure they stayed out of my toothbrush.” But most intriguing are Claire’s friends, who warmly welcome Walker into their fold and ultimately help him unlock the secrets and untapped flexibility of his own psyche. There is computer whiz Mandy Cicerone, who has psychic visions, and the mysteriously captivating Melanie, who describes herself as an occultist and practices wicca on the side. Just outside the friendship circle but critical to the story is the eccentric, eminent physicist Ronald Ettenmoor, who is conducting paranormal experiments. This is an intoxicating mix of characters. The book, which delivers an action-filled climax, provides a compelling study of the dynamics of unique interpersonal relationships.

A satisfying and thought-provoking mystery with an enthralling cast.

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-09-2 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 400 pages
  • $13.99
Hardcover Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-08-5 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 400 pages
  • $21.99
Kindle Edition Digital Ebook Purchas Details
  • 08/2023
  • 978-1-958840-10-8 B0C5T2RYHR
  • 459 pages
  • $4.99
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