Starred review from July 11, 2022
Crichtonesque thrillers don’t come much better than this intricate outing from Riddle (The Extinction Trials), which combines a fantastic premise—a time-travel device known as Absolom is used to imprison dangerous criminals in the prehistoric past—with a closed-circle whodunit. One of Absolom’s inventors, Sam Anderson, is visiting his wife’s grave in Nevada with their children, 19-year-old Adeline and 11-year-old Ryan, when he’s wrongfully arrested. He’s charged with killing Nora Thomas, his lover and a colleague in developing Absolom, and Adeline is also implicated. When someone smuggles a message into his holding cell threatening to frame Adeline for the murder if Sam does not confess, he’s forced to submit to the time exile he himself invented. While Sam navigates a harsh past Earth, the bereft Adeline devotes herself to identifying which of the remaining people behind Absolom is the true murderer and finding a way to rescue her father. Riddle keeps the twists coming, including a mind-bending jaw-dropper that sets up the book’s second half. By creating sympathetic and complex characters, the author makes suspending disbelief easy. Readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.
September 1, 2022
A father and daughter must solve a time-spanning mystery in this twisty science-fiction thriller. As the book begins, scientist Sam Anderson is visiting his late wife Sarah's grave with his children, 19-year-old Adeline and Ryan, who's 11. While they're still talking about Sarah, they're approached by three drones and seven cops who arrest Sam for the murder of Nora Thomas, one of his colleagues--with whom he'd begun a relationship. Sam is shocked to find out that Nora is dead, that he's a suspect, and especially that Adeline has been arrested, too. Gradually, Riddle reveals how Sam and his colleagues at Absolom Sciences made their fortunes via a process that sends "the world's worst criminals" millions of years back in time and into a parallel timeline, thereby ending most crime on the planet. While the process that the Absolom scientists created is central to the plot, its societal effects are not--the parts of the book dealing with those effects (and the ethics behind it) are the least developed aspects of the novel. Trying to save Adeline, Sam offers a false confession to the murder and is sent back to prehistoric times, while, in the present day, Adeline tries to get to the bottom of who murdered Nora. It's here that the plot really kicks into high gear. If Riddle was simply telling two parallel storylines--one of a man struggling to survive in the Triassic, the other of his daughter exploring corporate intrigue to clear his name--it would be thrilling enough. But Riddle makes use of a few neatly done plot twists to send the narrative around some unexpected corners. Some aspects of the setting feel undercooked, but the plot and pacing are handled strongly enough to make up for it. The end result is thoroughly gripping once it's worked up enough momentum. Come for the time travel, stay for the plot twists.
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July 15, 2022
Sam and daughter Adeline Anderson have been arrested. One of them is implicated in the murder of Sam's colleague and lover, Dr. Nora Thomas. Sam, Nora, and other partners developed Absolom, a process used to send murderers and terrorists to an alternate world's prehistory, but Nora disagreed with the group on how to proceed with an updated version. Sam is given a note telling him to confess, or his daughter will be charged. He is sent back to the Triassic Age in another time line with the slim hope that Absolom Two can save him, but until then, he must fend for himself. Meanwhile, Adeline is encouraged to find the real killer by Daniele Danneros, the financial wizard behind the success of Absolom; but she, too, has secrets. Everyone involved could be guilty, but they are sincerely working to save Sam. Though it's slow to start, the book picks up like a great roller coaster. With a nod to John Varley's Millenium, the thrills in this mystery are not so much about who the killer is but how to save lives while maintaining their time line.
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