The Last Equation of Isaac Severy

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs

Three narrators tell this story:

1 - Hazel Severy, proprietor of a failing bookshop in Seattle, in L.A. for her adoptive grandfather Isaac's funeral. Isaac, a brilliant mathematician, had left behind a cryptic message for Hazel to unravel. It would lead to further clues and eventually to a secret project of Isaac's that he instructed Hazel to destroy, telling no one. 

 

2 - Isaac's son, Philip, a physics professor whose work showed promise at one time but hasn't impressed anyone since. He's weighed down by his father's disappointment in him, and now his own in himself. 

3 - Gregory, Hazel's brother, a police detective carrying a lot of anger from childhood abuse. What he's been doing with that anger is a secret that seems almost out of place in this story.

I love books set in academia with lots of math and literature references. You don't have to understand them all (and I don't) to get the gist but it's fun to come across one you recognize now and then.  Many of the clues here that Hazel must solve to find her grandfather's work are mathematical. 

The Severy family are brainy types other than Hazel and Gregory who are more like the rest of us lesser mortals. They are Isaac's adopted children, taken in after their foster father, Isaac's son, Tom, was found to be criminally abusive to the children and sent to jail. Tom has just completed his sentence and been released, and now Gregory is watching his every move.

I enjoyed the mystery around Isaac's secret work and the clues Hazel followed to find it, but the story lacked the tension needed to make it a real page-turner. I wish it had gone into more depth about the equation (the one in the title, the end result of his secret project), about the people who wanted it and the unsettling plans they had for it. I have so many questions. Gregory's part of the story, too, was unsettling. It's too much, too big to be thrown in as a sub-plot. I'd love to read a second book that goes deeper into his story as well as expanding upon the purpose and impact of the equation.

I don't think it quite lives up to its potential, but I liked it and would probably read it again to look for things I'm sure I missed the first time.