I’ve been in a reading slump for almost a month (I blame Dragon Age), so when I picked up The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It had been on my radar for a while leading up to its release, but I’ve picked up several books in the past month only to sadly put them back on the shelf.
I devoured this book in one sitting.
Kembral Thorne is spending a few hours away from her newborn, and she’s determined to enjoy herself at this party no matter what. But when the guests start dropping dead, Kem has no choice but to get to work. She is a Hound, after all, and she can’t help picking up the scent of trouble.
She’s not the only one. Her professional and personal nemesis, notorious burglar Rika Nonesuch, is on the prowl. They quickly identify what’s causing the a mysterious grandfather clock that sends them down an Echo every time it chimes. In each strange new layer of reality, time resets and a sinister figure appears to perform a blood-soaked ritual.
As Kem and Rika fall into increasingly macabre versions of their city, they’ll need to rely on their wits—and each other—to unravel the secret of the clock and save their home.
This book was exactly what I needed to break my slump, and it’s one that I plan on reading again soon. Books with sapphic pining are what I crave, but this one added in a fantastic lovers-to enemies-to lovers, cat-and-mouse dynamic that didn’t feel too cliche. With that being said, this story does feel a bit campy at times, but that’s not a bad thing. A locked room murder mystery should thrive off of its campiness, and it creates a nice contrast between the mystery and the way this world spirals into insanity as Kembral and Rika continue to fall through echos.
Echos are what make this story so fascinating. Imagine the world as we know it is a pancake (not literally), and beneath us is another world almost exactly like ours, only different. Beneath that layer is another layer, and as you continue to fall to different layers, your familiar world becomes a lot more bizarre and dangerous.
Caruso’s way of describing each Echo, especially as the world becomes darker and weirder, really set the tone. In some ways, Echos began to feel a bit like a Tim Burton movie, familiar but off, just enough to make everything unsettling.
The Last Hour Between Worlds is a fun ride with a delightful sapphic romance, one that I highly recommend! The next book in the series, The Last Soul Among Wolves, is in August 2025.