March 1, 2023
In this high-octane, whirlwind thriller that combines crime fiction and sci-fi, LifeTime, a private law enforcement agency, uses time travel to prevent crimes. Agent Miriam Randle expects her current assignment to go like any other for her and her partner. But when the routine assignment goes wrong, it opens a Pandora's box that will throw everything Miriam believed about her life into chaos. She must hop through different time periods, following a shadow from her past while at the same time unraveling a possible conspiracy at the highest levels of her organization. Readers will enjoy trying to piece together the various timelines that transpire, not only currently, but through various years and situations, trying to figure out what actually happened. While it can be confusing at times, the book is an interesting take on the time-travel trope and the philosophical thought experiment of what would happen if the past could be changed. VERDICT Like a Mission Impossible or a Minority Report with the addition of time-travel. Readers of sci-fi will enjoy this new take on a classic idea from Bellin (Scarred City).--Laura Hiatt
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February 17, 2023
Time travel works for people who are able to vividly recall the time when they were traumatized. Insert magic tech into their diaphragms, and trained agents can be sent back in time to stop crimes from happening. Myriam (aka Myriad, for all the lives she's lived traveling to the past) is a prime candidate for such a career since she watched her twin brother die at the hands of a gunman who invaded her elementary school. Her first-person narrative is hard boiled, as she describes how her latest case has gone south in a big way: instead of saving a victim, Myriad killed her. Still reeling from the implications of the accident, she leaves her partner's bed for a time-out smoke on his balcony. Minutes later, he is shot by another time traveler, who then skips out of her time line. Her life unravels from there, until she is forced to return to the event that haunts her life. YA author Bellin (Freefall, 2017) weaves a spellbinding mystery with this time-travel, detective noir.
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April 15, 2023
An attempt on her partner's life forces a time-hopping cop to go on the lam in search of answers. When she was just 6 years old, Miriam Randle witnessed her twin brother's murder, and the event has colored her entire life. If Jeremy had lived, her mother would not have abandoned her. She would not have had to manage her father's alcoholism on her own, and there would be someone else to care for her estranged mother now, in the wake of an early-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis. At 26, Miriam works as a "travel agent": a private law enforcement officer who goes back in time to stop murders before they happen. Hours after a mission goes sideways, she narrowly misses the chance to stop a would-be assassin from gravely injuring her partner, Vax. These back-to-back failures would be enough to unsettle any agent, but they fall on the 20th anniversary of Jeremy's death. The ensuing debriefing reveals Miriam and Vax's affair as well as his belief that Miriam may be losing her grip. All signs indicate that Vax's assailant is a rogue agent, but the duo's handler does not give Miriam time to testify. He fires her mere moments before the killer strikes again, leaving her in possession of a literal smoking gun. Shades of classic science fiction permeate Bellin's neonoir, to both positive and negative effect. The central mystery keeps the pages turning well into the third act, but the author doesn't provide readers with the necessary tools to stitch the case together for themselves, resulting in several eleventh-hour reveals that feel unearned. In spite of the lack of signposting, however, readers familiar with Bellin's SF predecessors will spot many of the plot twists coming from miles away. That may please eagle-eyed speculative-fiction fans, but Bellin's decision to forego the trail of breadcrumbs may disappoint readers who approach this genre blender as a thriller. A twisty time hop that never fully escapes the shadow of its influences.
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