The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this book up because a friend of mine kept going on about it.
Four genius women invent time travel. The travelling triggers a breakdown in one of them, so she is excluded from the time travel. The other three go on to develop a huge organisation called the Conclave.
The Conclave has its own laws, its own way of dealing with currency and its own conventions.
In the present day, someone in found murdered in a locked room. One of the characters tries to solve the mystery of who this woman is and who killed her.
There are a huge number of characters in this book. It’s really nice to see women scientists being at the forefront of it all. That said, the characters felt a bit like they were pawns being moved round by the story. I didn’t feel connected to many of them. I think it’s possibly because there were so many POV characters. (In the first chapter, the narrative is very much outside the women’s heads – possibly on purpose because of the way it links to the story. It does get better after a few chapters).
The story, on the other hand, is intricate and brilliant. The world building is AMAZING. I can see this book being turned into a TV series or a film. The plot is complex and the locked room mystery keeps it moving.
If you like a tightly plotted time travel story, this is definitely the book for you.
Rhoda Baxter 