The Last Equation of Isaac Severy - Nova Jacobs

This was an impulse grab at the library. The cover looked cool and it is about math. I'm an accountant, so math is seemed like an interesting topic, I got this one home and promptly forgot about it. All the books, including all those bunny books were due on the same day and as we were headed out of the city for a weekend in the mountains, I had a basket of books on my lap checking to make sure we had them all so I could renew any that were not where they were supposed to be. Imagine my surprise when I found that one of the bunny books was not there. So as we are driving to the library I am renewing the missing bunny book and two others for me. I had already started another book so I didn't think I would get to this one soon. But after struggling to be interested in that other book (this sounds familiar, seems I am getting into a pattern here....) I grabbed this book and I did not want to put it down. We are in beautiful Radium Hot Springs and I would rather read this book than go on a hike or go to the hot springs. Now I did not just read this book, we did go out and enjoy the area, hiking, watching big horn sheep, tiny golf (as my youngest called it), the hot springs, and the lake. I didn't finish this book on the trip, but a few days later after work I went to hide out in my bedroom because as never fails, I will get to the last 10 pages and my family will not leave me alone. It's like they can sense that I am at the good part and they do everything they can to interrupt me.

This book starts off with Isaac Severy preparing breakfast for himself and a guest. Isaac is also mentally preparing for his death as he is certain he will die today. Isaac, we later learn is a brilliant mathematician and police deem his death a suicide. His adopted granddaughter Hazel received a letter from him after his death and when she opens it, she finds her grandfather has asked her to take his equation and give it to another trusted mathematician. However to find the equation, Hazel must solve the clues he has left for her. Most of the Severy family are mathematically inclined, however Hazel is more literary inclined. She owns a book store. At first Hazel is going to just ignore the letter, but soon she realizes that the request needs to be fulfilled.

The book switches between Hazel, Isaac's son Philip, a physicist, and Gregory, Hazel's brother, Isaac's other adopted grandchild. I was hoping for more of a mystery that I could figure out, but the book didn't work that way. It revealed more and more of the Severy's lives and as we learned more, Hazel began to solve the mystery.

I really liked this book. The characters were interesting, the mystery was enough to keep me reading, the twists were great. I would read this one again. Too bad it has been returned to the library already!