David Rockwood Worthington is serving a life sentence in a Massachusetts prison for the murder of his third wife, but that's not the only pressing issue he’s facing. Rival gangs are terrorizing David as they claim he owes them $6 million and the Internal Revenue Service says he has $18 million tied up in a secret Cayman Island account. Even these financial situations are not as troubling as David’s second wife, Blossom. She’s the most manipulative, conniving soul that David has ever come across. She has been a part of David’s life  — or his soul’s journey  —  for the longest time, traveling in his karmic pod and making each lifetime miserable for him. So David decides to pen down a warning for his soul’s next Souljourner of this spiteful enemy in hopes that his strong intentions will cause the letter to travel through space and time and reach the next Souljourner in time.

Souljourner by Paul Steven Stone is a mind-boggling read with sophisticated, elaborately developed characters and a robust plot. A story that follows a character as he deals with a predicament that prevails through his incarnations makes for an interesting subject to follow, but it is the way that Paul Steven Stone delivers the story that has me fascinated, and I believe many readers will share the same fascination for the originality in concept. The karmic crime novel includes narratives from the protagonist’s perspective and strong, memorable characters, such as Blossom and the prison psychiatrist, making it an exciting and suspenseful narrative. The backstories are cleverly woven into the fabric of the tale and they offer a strong idea of David Rockwood ended up in prison and why he decided to write a letter for the next Souljourner in line — himself in the future. Paul Steven Stone is an unmatched storyteller with a knack for creating engaging and sophisticated characters and compelling themes.