A Twist in Time

by Julie McElwain

Ebook, 2017

Library's rating

Library's review

As this book opens, 21st century FBI agent Kendra Donovan is still stuck in the 19th century, sent by some mysterious time-space vortex to Regency England in this series' first book, [A Murder in Time], which I read a couple of years ago. It's a few months after the events in that book, and Kendra

is still desperately searching for a way back to the present, even though she's got a gorgeous Marquis making googly eyes at her. Some people, am I right? But she's forced to put aside her quest to escape the past when the aforesaid sexy Marquis, Alec, is suspected of murdering Lady Dover, a woman widely known by all of the "Polite World" to be his mistress, though he was far from her only ... admirer. It's up to Kendra to combine her modern-day investigative skills with the 19th-century tools she has to work with to find the real killer.

If you enjoy Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, and you like mysteries, you'll probably like this series. McElwain uses her protagonist's ignorance of the time period to explain a lot of the slang and customs that Heyer filled her stories with. And unlike Heyer, we get a good look at the seamy underbelly of 19th century London outside the drawing rooms and gentlemen's clubs that Heyer's characters frequented. Predictably, Kendra chafes against the restrictions on women at that time, but she also has to reluctantly admit the occasional advantage as well. Two people in the 19th century know her secret: Alec and his uncle the Duke, and between them they provide her with a cover story that gives her access to the gentry and keeps her from being completely ostracized while she conducts her investigation.

And then there's that dishy Marquis ...

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Description

Fiction. Mystery. Science Fiction. Historical Fiction. Former FBI agent Kendra Donovan's attempts to return to the twenty-first century have failed, leaving her stuck at Aldridge Castle in 1815. And her problems have just begun: in London, the Duke of Aldridge's nephew Alec-Kendra's confidante and lover-has come under suspicion for murdering his former mistress, Lady Dover, who was found viciously stabbed with a stiletto, her face carved up in a bizarre and brutal way. Lady Dover had plenty of secrets, and her past wasn't quite what she'd made it out to be. Nor is it entirely in the past-which becomes frighteningly clear when a crime lord emerges from London's seamy underbelly to threaten Alec. Joining forces with Bow Street Runner Sam Kelly, Kendra must navigate the treacherous nineteenth century while she picks through the strands of Lady Dover's life. As the noose tightens around Alec's neck, Kendra will do anything to save him, including following every twist and turn through London's glittering ballrooms, where deception is the norm-and any attempt to uncover the truth will get someone killed.… (more)