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A review by m4film
The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins
4.0
I was holding my son as we walked through the library. He happened to reach out and pick this book. I took a look and decided to give it a try. To my delight it was a quick and enjoyable read. It's also very original as it's told from all points of view. Here's the note from the author:
I came across Joe Zabbidou's Black Book of Secrets and Ludlow Fitch's memoirs in a rather curious manner. They were tightly rolled up and concealed within the hollow of a wooden leg. How I came to be in possession of the leg is unimportant right now. What matters is the story the documents tell.
Unfortunately neither Joe's Black Book nor Ludlow's memoirs survived the centuries intact, and when I unrolled them, it was obvious that they had suffered damage. Not only were the pages brittle and water-stained, but much of what I had was also illegible. The fragments and extracts are reproduced here exactly as they were written. I corrected Ludlow's spelling - it really was quite dreadful- but I did no more than that. As for the parts that are missing, what else could I do but draw upon my own imagination to fill in the gaps? I pieced the story together in the way I thought best. I like to think I stayed as close to the truth as I could with the few facts I had. I do not claim to be the author of this story, merely the person who has tried to reveal it to the world.
I came across Joe Zabbidou's Black Book of Secrets and Ludlow Fitch's memoirs in a rather curious manner. They were tightly rolled up and concealed within the hollow of a wooden leg. How I came to be in possession of the leg is unimportant right now. What matters is the story the documents tell.
Unfortunately neither Joe's Black Book nor Ludlow's memoirs survived the centuries intact, and when I unrolled them, it was obvious that they had suffered damage. Not only were the pages brittle and water-stained, but much of what I had was also illegible. The fragments and extracts are reproduced here exactly as they were written. I corrected Ludlow's spelling - it really was quite dreadful- but I did no more than that. As for the parts that are missing, what else could I do but draw upon my own imagination to fill in the gaps? I pieced the story together in the way I thought best. I like to think I stayed as close to the truth as I could with the few facts I had. I do not claim to be the author of this story, merely the person who has tried to reveal it to the world.