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Review: The Last Equation of Isaac Severy: A Novel in Clues by Nova Jacobs



Blurb from Goodreads:
The Family Fang meets The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in this literary mystery about a struggling bookseller whose recently deceased grandfather, a famed mathematician, left behind a dangerous equation for her to track down—and protect—before others can get their hands on it.

Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling Seattle bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden.

While in Los Angeles for Isaac’s funeral, Hazel realizes she’s not the only one searching for his life’s work, and that the equation’s implications have potentially disastrous consequences for the extended Severy family, a group of dysfunctional geniuses unmoored by the sudden death of their patriarch.

As agents of an enigmatic company shadow Isaac’s favorite son—a theoretical physicist—and a long-lost cousin mysteriously reappears in Los Angeles, the equation slips further from Hazel’s grasp. She must unravel a series of maddening clues hidden by Isaac inside one of her favorite novels, drawing her ever closer to his mathematical treasure. But when her efforts fall short, she is forced to enlist the help of those with questionable motives.
My Review:
 
The simplest thing I can say is that I didn't enjoy reading this.  I kept just wanting it to be over.  It wasn't necessarily poorly written but it was also hard to capture my attention. This book also had way too much cousin on cousin love.  Not just one set of cousins either. 😑 . If you love math, maybe this one will be more interesting to you but I just felt like the characters were haphazard as well as supremely unlikeable.  None of them knew themselves and weren't written to be fully realized.  I'm kind of surprised this book has gotten so much attention because, for me, it was mediocre at best.

The Last Equation of Isaac Severy came out earlier this month on March 6, 2018, and you can purchase HERE.  
Hazel tried to ignore the burning sensation at the tips of her ears and a sudden desire to upend the tea table and kick her aunt's chair out form under her. There was also a brief clip of Hazel emptying the contents of the teapot on her head. "You've really thought it through, haven't you?" 
"Please, this isn't a Poe mystery; it hardly requires a C. Auguste Dupin level of detection. It took me a few seconds. Most people go around thinking that life if magical and mysterious, filled with all kinds of unknowns. Bullshit. Once you decide the universe is knowable, all kinds of answers become available to you."  
"I guess I don't go around thinking that way."  
"Of course you don't. Very few people are blessed with a methodical brain. Like everyone else, you probably stumble through life getting into trouble, debt, and heartbreak."

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