Discover the mystery of “The Last Hour Between Worlds”

"The Last Hour Between Worlds" book cover

Photo: "The Last Hour Between Worlds" book cover.

"The Last Hour Between Worlds" book cover. Photo courtesy of Amazon Images.

“The Last Hour Between Worlds” by Melissa Caruso is a 2024-released fantasy mystery novel featuring a bright cast of characters, clever intrigue, and a captivating queer rivals-to-lovers romance. Although it wasn’t without its flaws, the book shined in its fun character dynamics, campy banter, and thorough worldbuilding. 

The book begins with protagonist Kembral Thorne at a party celebrating the new year. Thorne is a decorated Hound, or magical detective. Thorne had been on maternity leave with no plans to return to work anytime soon, but at the party, she finds herself drawn to a grandfather clock recently acquired by the host. Thorne immediately recognizes the clock as a magical relic taken from an Echo, a lower plane of existence where reality has an increasingly loose grip. Hounds like Thorne are hired to travel into the Echoes or investigate relics like this one, but she chooses to ignore her investigative nature and relax at the party instead. 

At least, until she spots a spy and personal rival Rika Nonesuch poking around the relic. At the same time, she hears reports of unusual activity in the lower Echoes, where no one—not even the most decorated Hounds—dare to venture. Thorne tries to keep away from the party’s drama, but to her dismay, the entire ballroom falls into a lower Echo following the appearance of a mysterious figure. When Thorne realizes no one remembers what happened leading up to the appearance, she finds herself wrapped up in a reality-defying mystery, with a certain clock at the very center.

“The Last Hour Between Worlds” is a well crafted novel with a carefully developed cast of characters, strong narrative structure, and immersive world. Rika and Kembral’s complicated relationship is thoroughly explained, and the way they work through their past to solve the mystery is convincing and charming. The side characters too have strong character arcs. At first, it was a bit hard to keep track of all of them, since they were all introduced at once, but their continued presence and interactions promptly solved this. 

The biggest benefit of the large cast was its impact on the plot. At a lengthy 400 pages, “The Last Hour Between Worlds” would have fallen flat if every page was dedicated to only Kembral and Rika. Each character’s arc stood within its own section of the story, interspersed and woven together by scenes between the main duo. This structure kept the interactions between Rika and Kembral fresh and allowed the story enough time to flesh out the complicated political and magical dynamics of Acantis.

A lot of the story’s thematic depth came from each character’s perspective on how the world should be governed, influenced by their backstories. Each of these perspectives made the book’s exploration of topics like systemic injustice within the story even more fascinating. 

Of course, the book wasn’t perfect. My biggest issues were with the novel’s setting and descriptions, character interactions, and themes. Except for a few scenes, the whole book takes place in the ballroom where the party is happening. Though the ballroom seems central, the setting was underdeveloped with information. Critical details like its shape and layout were never described. Eventually, I gave up trying to put together mental images of the scenes based on what few descriptive details were given, and instead pictured whatever came to mind, which made scenes that relied on the structure of the space much harder to follow. 

Instead of using its hefty page count to flesh out its central setting, “The Last Hour Between Worlds” devotes much of this to interactions between the two main characters. Although much of their dialogue was campy, witty, or otherwise entertaining, Rika and Kembral have a tendency to repeat certain conversations while making little progress in solving the problems they discuss. The tedious dialogue combined with frustrating descriptions made some scenes with a lot of potential tedious to read. 

The final major issue I had was with the book’s themes. As it stands, “The Last Hour Between Worlds” is broadly about how people use power to create change. It explores this idea by showing the lengths people go to maintain power and challenging the way characters exert their power over others. I would have liked to see it explore the idea of reality a lot more. The book throws around the word ‘reality’ a lot, but never properly explains what ‘real’ means to this world. I would have loved to see a commentary on what makes something real, especially through a philosophical lens. There are a few short moments where characters reflect on things like their relative perception of each other or certain situations, but this would have been a unique topic for Caruso to explore further. 

Although it wasn’t without its flaws, I had a great time reading “The Last Hour Between Worlds.” It had a strong plot and characters, even if they could be repetitive sometimes. I would rate it 4/5 stars, and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good romance or fantasy book. Go check it out!