"The Skin Map" by Stephen R. Lawhead

"The ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tatooed on a man's body across an omniverse of intersecting realities." I'm a sometimes fan of sci-fi/fantasy, so the thought of time travel that involves exploring alternative worlds intrigued me. Thomas Nelson offered this on their BookSneeze site in the form of audio book only. I listened to the book on my way to and from work. After a few chapters, I made excuses to drive my car instead of walking or riding my bike so I could stay abreast of Kit Livingstone's adventures with his great-grandfather Cosimo and Sir Henry. One sign of a well-written novel is the author's ability to make me gasp when the bad guys are about to overcome the good guys. Or when I say, "aha," at the moment he plants a nugget of information in the story. Stephen Lawhead did both...until the end of the book. The finale, which I won't reveal here (I'm not a spoiler for the next reader), came unexpectedly. I felt nothing had been resolved. I still had questions that needed to be answered. Even the epilogue left me with a question mark floating around my head. "How could he do this?" I demanded. I want to know what happened to Arthur Flinders Peachtree. How did the dread Lord Burley always know where Kit and Cosimo would be? Then I noticed the fine print on the cover: A Bright Empires Novel. I looked it up on the Internet and discovered the story continues in another book. What are the chances Thomas Nelson will offer the audio version of The Bonehouse to their BookSneezers? {grumble} I also wonder why Thomas Nelson published this book. I found no Christian theme in it. On the contrary, it seemed to be more new age than Church Age. Just saying... When I post my review on Barnes & Noble's site, I might give The Skin Map two stars instead of four or five simply because of all the loose ends that needed to be tied up at the end. I am a dissatisfied reader right now. >:-(