Kit Livingston is in for a huge surprise when he gets caught in a storm and runs into this long-lost grandfather. Unbelievably, his grandfather insists that he has discovered that ley lines throughout Britian are actually pathways that cross time and space, and that these same ley lines are responsible for his disappearance long ago.

Kit, in trying to prove the truth to his unbelieving girlfriend, accidentally becomes caught up in his grandfather's mission: to find the Skin Map. The Skin Map is the only known recorded map of the ley lines, and both hero and villain alike seek the map with every resource available. The one who holds the map will have an unbeatable advantage when navigating the ley lines, and in that advantage would lie untold power.

Author Stephen Lawhead has crafted a grand adventure in The Skin Map. The writing is fresh and unique, and the story-line is incredibly original. The novel does suffer a few dry periods in which the plot seems to become bogged down in the details, but for the most part, it was quite an enjoyable read. The one true flaw in the story is the ending - virtually none of the details get wrapped up in the end, leaving readers hanging, waiting for the next book in the series. Perhaps others may love an ending which is not really an ending at all, however, for me, it is one of my greatest pet peeves. I absolutely detest an ending which leaves readers hanging.