This is a highly entertaining time-travel series by a British writer.  The premise is that there is St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research where the resident Historians "investigate major historical events in contemporary time".  Just don't call it time travel.  While time, itself, has certain safeguards to prevent messing with the timeline; St. Mary's also has rules in place about what can and cannot be done.  And the Historians do try to follow those rules…mostly.  A successful mission means the mission parameters were met…it doesn't always mean everyone comes home in one piece, or at all.

Another carnival ride for the St. Mary's Historians but it starts innocuously enough with Max meeting her first group of trainees as St. Mary's new Chief of Training.  One of them was instantly recognizable to Max, it was like looking in a mirror and sure to mean trouble down the road.  One was Ms. Perfect who was, obviously, a constant irritant to Max.  And one of the men, Mr. Hoyle, was a real puzzle; a Brit who came from America by way of the Canadian underground (America is a closed country but not terribly important in our story.) Not a sociable fellow.

As the new Training Officer in a St. Mary's that is way understaffed for Historians, Max decides on a bold new approach to getting Historians trained faster. Rather than spending months in a classroom, she intends to get her trainees into the field just as quickly as possible. On paper it sounded great, saying it out loud to Dr. Bairstow sounded great; she should've known it would go tits-up just like that.  Yes…she really should have known.  Only St. Mary's would find a way to drown halfway up a high mountain.  And, of course, the mayhem and property damage wasn't restricted to the past, damage was inevitable on St. Mary's property but no one could've guessed what one rat could do.

Markham does put a bee in Max's bonnet when he raises the unpleasant question of just how the bad guys knew St. Mary's would be at St. Paul's Cathedral during the Great Fire of London (see "No Time Like the Past").  It seems obvious that someone at St. Mary's snitched to Ronan (their arch-nemesis) but that seems incomprehensible to Max.  Everyone at St. Mary's suffered due to Ronan; and everyone literally fought with their lives to save St. Mary's.  Wait…one person held back, one person didn't put their life on the line.  But it will take all of Max's courage to engage the dreaded Rosie Lee to get an explanation.

There's also the usual uproariously (I haven't used that word before!) funny stuff about a baby mammoth and the saber-tooth tigers; not to mention the upset they experience when they meet Herodotus, the father of History; a Greek historian who is nothing like they imagined.

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper adventure without an appearance by the dreaded Time Police; Max just didn't imagine why they would be necessary when they went to witness the death (by burning) of Joan d'Arc and everyone would simply stay inside the pod and watch on camera.  But, yes…everything did go tits-up again; and yes, the Time Police were there; but, surprisingly, didn't manage to catch them doing anything untoward.  This time…

The final trip for the trainees was, again, a simple one:  witness the opening of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in 1864.  And, gloriosky!….it was simple.  Nothing happened.  Really…no one got hurt or lost.  The trouble only began when they returned to the pod.  And the mystery of Mr. Hoyle, which had troubled Max from the beginning, became clear.  Well, maybe not real clear, but less murky.  And an obvious setup for future adventures.

These stories don't exactly have a single climax; they tend to be small adventures loosely strung together.  The only real storyline that trailed through the whole book was the training cycle and what happened to the new Historians.  But Taylor always manages to hit us with just one more upset before the last page is turned and she didn't disappoint.  But this "upset" is going to turn Max's life upsidedown and she may never be able to gallivant around History again.

As always, it appears to the gentle reader that Taylor just writes little vignettes and strings them together higgledy-piggledy. I'm not sure that's an incorrect summation.  But, damn it, it works!  Nothing I've read in the past ten years or so has been half as funny.  There was a great deal of chuckling out-loud, particularly in the first half of the book before things got serious.  But, even then, I was prone to the occasional snicker.  If you haven't already read this, you are waaay behind.  And, thankfully, there are many more titles for me to devour.  Catch up!  ~~  Catherine Book

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