Days after an accident on a stormy ski slope, John Bastian wakes up to find his memories are a tangled mess, as if his life has suddenly overlapped with someone else’s—which he seems to know vividly. He slips easily into Jack Bachman’s Louisiana drawl, and remembers loving a red-headed woman. His new memories aren’t all pleasant, though. John is plagued by nightmares of Jack’s brutal end, one that involves an axe murder and the ruthless hunt for centuries-old treasure buried somewhere in the swampy bayous of Louisiana. Followed by the ghosts of this cursed treasure and a past that might belong to him, John embarks on a journey to make sense of his new memories and finish what Jack started. In the meantime, Jack’s old enemies force John into a high-stakes treasure hunt while a hurricane bears down on the bayou, threatening to sink everything.
ECHO FROM A BAYOU by J. Luke Bennecke is an old-fashioned, timeless treasure hunt with a supernatural twist—adding haunts, cursed gold, and the concept of reincarnation with a Louisiana flair. As the bayou has long since been the setting for paranormal tales, dragging the treasure-seekers into the murky waters makes for an intriguing layer of atmosphere. While California-native John Bastian appears out of his depth, being thrust into a high-stakes adventure, it’s interesting to see him draw on Jack Bachman’s memories to guide him. The more time he spends in Louisiana, the more Jack’s personality comes through. Part of the novel’s premise is inspired by real-life stories of little kids supposedly remembering past lives, recalling details they shouldn’t know but somehow pinpoint with accuracy. This aspect of the novel unfolds with the kind of tension that feels unsettling—in a good way. The story is also never short on action; the pace is fast from the get-go, plunging John and his best friend Kevin into disasters ranging from incidents on snow-capped mountains to high-speed car chases, shootouts, and a worsening hurricane with harsh winds and devastating rainfall. Lending the perspective of Jack’s rivals (Scott and Mike) at certain points in the story provides another source of suspenseful tension, though sometimes Scott veers into a mustache-twirling type of villain. The portrayal of John’s friend Kevin also often comes across as more of a stereotypical caricature of a black man than a genuine character, relying a bit too much on harmful tropes.
The plot does have issues that lean toward contrivance to keep it going on many occasions. Despite the endless conflicts these characters endure, a lot of sequences and sudden reveals of useful information often feel too convenient—whether John’s getting fed information from a ghost, or another character has access to every file they happen to need. Another character just happens to know how to operate heavy machinery when it serves the plot, and there is also a sequence where John and Kevin are able to quickly rent surveying equipment while the hurricane starts to make landfall. Sometimes it’s just hard to suspend disbelief, even if the book features supernatural occurrences.
The fast-paced action and adventure in J. Luke Bennecke’s ECHO FROM A BAYOU feels cinematic in scope with many twisting turns and a shocking ending that echoes long after reading the last page.
~Jessica Thomas for IndieReader