I loved Black Bottle Man! It was a fantastic read - parts of it made me smile and and some parts had me in tears. The story had me hooked from the first page to the last. I found the storyline complex yet simple at the same time. It's a book I'm sure that I will read again and again, each time decoding a bit more of it.

A well written story that is very hard to put down. The main character Rembrandt draws you in for a thrilling and emotional journey. This book is not just for teens.

The Black bottle Man is a seemingly rather short book with which when you are done reading you have to catch your breath. You start with this whirl wind of a story and intrigue. All of a sudden you are sucked into this tornado that takes you all across the continent and decades of time. You feel like you are with Rembrandt ,who has a formidable task ahead of him. You are amazed that one minute you are holding your breath, the next you are chuckling. Well done Craig, look forward to the next book.

Craig Russell's debut novel, The Black Bottle Man, is fabulous in different meanings of that word. As the subtitle promises, the story pertains to a fable (the original meaning). This is a brief work, just 174 pages, that entertains and provides a moral. In the telling, the story is also fabulous as in simply great. Russell is a fine storyteller who presents a daunting conundrum for his characters. He is an excellent wordsmith whose incisive metaphors and similes conjure myth, legend and history. His detail of setting is rich, particularly prairie life as experienced by a young boy.

The book unfolds two parallel and ultimately intersecting story lines through a series of flashbacks. The dominant tale focuses on Rembrandt and his involuntary travel across Canada and the United States during most of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. When Rembrandt is 10, his father strikes a bargain with the Devil who comes to their family as "the black bottle man." In an attempt to redeem the souls of two aunts who have committed a terrible sin, the souls of Rembrandt's father, uncle and Rembrandt himself are wagered. The terms are tough. The trio must find a champion who can defeat the Devil and, complicating their quest, the they cannot stay in any one place for more than 12 days. A momentous and especially tense part of the story is Rembrandt's experience as a young man during the Great Depression with other displaced, travelling men. He learns their hobo signs, a written communication that really was part of that historical subculture and, for him, a secret discovery.

The complementary story concerns a former school teacher, Gail, who finds herself confronting demons of her own. This is about another kind of soul-taking and search for redemption. Numbers, ritual and symbols figure prominently in Gail's reality, just as they do in Rembrandt's.

The Black Bottle Man presents us with humanity and magic. Russell tells the tale from a Christian perspective, but the themes of love, loyalty and family are universal. The publisher markets The Black Bottle Man as "teen fiction." While Russell's allusions to myth and history may challenge some young people, they are an invitation to further discovery. The teen fiction label should not deter other readers. This is a story that has something to say to everyone. And isn't that the mark of any good fable?