The Bone House

Lawhead's second Bright Empires time-travel tale (after May's The Skin Map) is an incoherent collection of storylines populated by an unwieldy cast of thinly drawn characters. Series protagonist Kit Livingstone wanders through early 19th%E2%80%93century Egypt and an alternate timeline populated by cavemen in the still-incomplete quest for the Skin Map, which holds the secret of the ley lines that make time travel possible and is the key to a further mystical secret involving the mysterious Well of Souls. Kit is a passive victim, spending much of his time lost or confused, while his girlfriend Wilhelmina, an improbably competent ley-traveler, makes excursions from 17th-century Prague to offer cryptic guidance. The threat of the villainous Archelaeus Burleigh fades, as he makes few appearances outside childhood flashbacks. Succeeding only at frustrating the reader with the jumble of unresolved mysteries and subplots, Lawhead leaves an initially promising series in utter disarray. (Sept.)