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 History, 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.

For those of you keeping up, you know that Max had her baby boy, Matthew.  And she and Leon were doing their best at having a go at being a family.  Since Ronan is still loose, Dr. Bairstow insisted they maintain their residence at St. Mary’s where they could be protected. But, as we now know well, nothing is completely protected.  Although when Max ran into Ronan while jogging around the lake, his approach was nothing she expected.  Rather than immediately kidnapping her or trying to kill her, he just wanted to talk.  Apparently, he had become rather tired of the constant running about and murdering.  Dr. Bairstow agreed to a meeting with him to discuss; after all, a retired Ronan would be a lot more agreeable than the current rampaging Ronan.  But leave it to the Time Police to completely muck it up.

And a great muck-up it was.  Ronan was convinced St. Mary’s had set him up and became completely enraged and unhinged.  He then kidnapped Matthew and promised Max that he intended to kill every person she loved.

Leon, of course, decided that only he could follow the trail and bring Matthew back to Max; on Friday as promised.  Markham and Guthrie wouldn’t hear of him having all the fun so they joined the fray with the technical assistance of the disgraced Time Police.  Two days later, Leon made good on his promise to Max; but Matthew was…changed.  And Max wasn’t sure she was going to be able to deal with it.

But life does go on and St. Mary’s has a mission to complete:  to view a historic meeting between the two men who were to define the future of a fledgling England:  Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex and Duke William of Normandy, aka William The Conqueror.  And this was followed up by a visit to the savage Battle of Hastings.  This mission took a great deal of the book interspersed with Max’s attempts to reconnect with her unfamiliar son.

Meanwhile, the Time Police and St. Mary’s agreed that Ronan could not be allowed to continue running amok along the timeline and his threat to Max remained uppermost in everyone’s minds.  They decided a joint mission was necessary and St. Mary’s contribution was Leon, Ian and Peterson.

Max continued to work on missions and her relationship with her son.  And finally, one day, Leon’s mission was completed.  He and his team ran Ronan to ground right at St. Mary’s.  And Max was there to witness.  Unfortunately, Ronan had run out of options so he apparently decided he was going to take as many of them with him as he could.  So along with blowing himself up, he managed to take three of the most important people in Max’s life: Leon, Ian, and Markham.

By this time in the book, I was ready to throw it to the ground.  There was little humor, no guffaws at all, and plenty of sadness and misery.  Not in all the previous books was there any hint that Taylor would take us here.  Well, except, maybe, for the Battle of St. Mary’s, there was death and loss then but not on this level. 

Then, to add insult to injury, the Time Police came to Max with a proposal that they take responsibility for raising Matthew.  While they could certainly provide him with a sterling education; he was all Max had left of Leon.

In the now-traditional plotline of these stories, St. Mary’s had a bit of a lark in the form of a Victorian game of croquet.  And in the middle of the game, they were visited by two teenagers in a homemade pod; running from the Time Police.  This was actually the lightest and funniest episode; I’m thinking that the author intended us to start supporting Max’s attempts to move past her tragedy.  And I’m imagining we haven’t seen the last of those two children.  There was a tantalizing throw-away line in reference to them.  Another ramification of Max finally accepting Leon’s death was a possible future relationship with Peterson.  They have been, after all, best friends for years and years.  It might be said it was only natural they gravitate towards each other.  But before anything could be … consummated, the Time Police arrived once again with news.  And before Max could think it through, she and Matthew were actually in the Time Police headquarters.  Although, for Matthew it was intended only as a trial period for him to understand what they were offering.  For Max, however, it was a trip that could either heal her or break her completely.  For they came bearing news that what was observed when Ronan blew up part of St. Mary’s was not necessarily what happened.

This is, officially, my least favorite book in this series.  I know writers delight in upending their characters and allowing them to be trampled, dumped off cliffs, and put into awful situations; but really, there should be rules, no reader should be forced to endure such stories as this one.  Obviously, the one character that cannot ever be permanently killed is Max; but, just as obviously, all other characters are fair game.  But these are funny stories, we cry. It’s not fair, we wail.  And the cruel author doesn’t give us any respite.  Although, to be fair, only in these stories do we distinguish between death and permanent death; as if they are different.  At St. Mary’s there is definitely a difference.

I am sure that for her UK readers, the mission of this story has great cultural significance.  I tried to read up on it a bit but I’m sure this Yank missed a lot of nuances.  So for those readers, this may have been a significant story.  Since that part of the story was just another dusty historic battle; my primary focus was Max, Leon and Matthew and that made this book a little less fun for me.  Shattered I was, in fact.

BUT…the good news is that she left us with a cliff-hangar and the next book is just a library visit away.  So I probably won’t wait as long before I take up the next story.  As always, the characters drive the story, and the dialogue elevates the characters.  I wish I could say something nice about the plot but that will have to wait for the next instalment.  ~~  Catherine Book

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