Wrong Place Wrong Time

Wrong Place Wrong Time

by Gillian McAllister

William Morrow, 2022. 402 pages. Fiction

Can you stop a murder after it's already happened? It's late October. After midnight. Jen is waiting up for her seventeen-year-old son. He's late. As she watches from the window, he emerges, and she realizes he isn't alone: he's walking toward a man, and he's armed. Jen can't believe what she sees when her funny, happy teenage son kills a stranger, right there on the street outside the house. Devastated and in despair, Jen wakes up the next morning only to discover that she is living that fateful day over again. The next day, it is the day before yesterday. Every morning she wakes up a day earlier, another day before the murder, with another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer to why this all happened.

I like suspense novels in general, but adding a time travel element to the story helped keep the premise of this novel new and fresh for me. It means Jen can actually stop the murder, while also adding extra complications. At first, Jen focuses on ways to stop the murder itself, trying to figure out where her son gets the knife. But as Jen goes further back in time, she delves into more than just causes and effects, and realizes there's a larger mystery at hand. I also loved that Jen's own motivations were motivations of love and concern instead of the motivations a hardened detective might have. This is a unique take on a suspense story that you won't want to miss.

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Here and Now and Then

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Stranded for eighteen years since the 1990s, time-traveling agent Kin Stewart, suffering from memory loss, has started a new life. When rescuers from the year 2142 finally arrive, he must choose between his current family and the one he left behind in the future. Although this novel is more sci-fi than mystery, this novel will appeal to readers who liked the time travel element and family motivations of Wrong Place Wrong Time.

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