Review: The Echo Archives
- tatedecaro
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
4/5 stars
The Last Hour Between Worlds and The Last Soul Among Wolves, by Melissa Caruso (2024 & 2025)
Loved these books and I'm excited to read the third in the series... But I couldn't wait til then to review the first two!
Sort of a Groundhog Day/Inception/locked-room-murder-mystery mashup, this book takes place at a fancy New Year's Eve party in a world where there are multiple layers, called Echoes, of reality. "Prime" is layer one, where the characters start out. The further down you go into the Echoes, the weirder and less based in reality things become. "Echoes" also refers to beings from the other layers who infiltrate Prime - for usually nefarious purposes.
Most people live happily in Prime without much interaction, if any, with the other Echoes (layers or beings). But some people have innately, or are taught, special skills - like Kembral, or Kem, who works for the investigative Hound Guild, and travels to other Echoes to rescue people that fall into them at weak points in reality. Kem can "blink step," which basically means pausing reality briefly while she moves freely amongst it, and is legendary in her field. The best Hound there is. But Kem is on maternity leave, and has come to the party just to have one night of "normalcy" away from her baby, Emmi.
Rika, another party goer, is from the Cat Guild - a burglar and thief who finds lost things. She excels at illusions, making people see only what she wants them to see. She is also Kem's... maybe ex-girlfriend? Complicated friend? Whatever they were, they are no longer. Something happened to drive them painfully apart.
When people start to mysteriously drop dead at the party, Kem's ideas of a relaxing night out are crushed. And at the stroke of a very peculiar clock, the entire night resets. No one has died, and no one but Kem, at first, remembers what has happened, as she learns that they've fallen into the next Echo down. After this all happens a few times, Kem finds a way to involve Rika - i.e. to make sure she remembers the events of the previous Echoes, where no one else does. They must team up to solve the mystery of why this is happening, who is responsible (what humans and what Echoes), and whether or not they can stop it before midnight in the final Echo (12 layers deep), when going back will no longer be an option.
I really loved these two heroines - especially the fact that a nursing mom with brain fog is doing a lot of pretty badass combat and creative sleuthing. The secondary characters are also really fun.
Pearson is Kem's boss at the Hounds, who is unabashedly desperate for her to return to work. The urge might be to turn him into a bumbling fool of a boss, but Pearson is perfectly competent, and always supportive of Kem's work instincts, even if he doesn't respect her "but I'm on leave!" boundaries.
Jaycel, an old friend of Kem's from childhood, is a flamboyant busybody, but fiercely loyal, and always brave in the face of danger, even when to her own detriment.
Jaycel's younger sibling, Blair, is from the Raven Guild and has the ability to perceive the layers of reality, sense Echo beings, and help explain the magical events of the night.
Dona Marjorie, a City Elder, is the party's host. She hides a few secrets herself, but is gracious and intelligent, and eager to help Kem and Rika however she can (once told, in each Echo, what is going on).
Dona Ryvard, also a City Elder, is a corrupt, repugnant politician who has it out for Kem. She's just too damn smart, and uncovers too much.
Then there are the Echo beings, some of whom are harmless, like the sweet young Clockmaker who looks up to Kem. But most are at the sinister heart of the dangerous game being played. And then, the Echo layers themselves! Just getting creepier and creepier, more and more macabre, and increasingly dangerous.
The Last Hour is really inventive and twisty. An adventure-packed, magical, fantastical, dark, delicious mystery. The second book continues the adventure, with another perilous quest - this time to unravel an ancient curse that threatens to kill Kem's closest friends.
Very excited for the third and final book of the series, The Last Star in the Void, which comes out later this year!
UP NEXT: The Girl with All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey
