Author: Brian Meeks
Genre: Mystery
Subgenre: Murder mystery, Time Travel
Length: 264 pages
The second book in the Henry Wood Detective Series.
Fans of Dashiell Hammett, who long for days of Bogart and Becall, will appreciate Henry Wood's sleuthing.
1955, Manhattan, and Henry has just gotten the call. Mickey is dead. His long time mentor and friend, run down outside their favorite bar, The Dublin Rogue. It looks like a simple hit and run, but keen eyes notice there is only one empty parking spot on the street, and the pile of cigarette butts in the gutter tells a different tale. Somebody was waiting, but who?
A novel in black and white, it harkens back to the days before Google, cell phones, and computer data bases. Henry must use cunning to uncover the truth, because everyone connected to the case has an agenda. There is much sleuthing and just the slightest hint of science fiction hiding in the closet of Henry's basement. All of it, though, is there to give him a chance to uncover the answers.
Take a journey back in time and see Manhattan as it was when the Yankees always seemed to win, and Brooklyn had Ebbets Field and the Dodger. There is history, intrigue and hints at romance that will keep you turning page after page until it is time to flip off the light.
If you like a mystery, then Time & Again is for you.
Time travel mechanism: A closet that delivers newspapers from the future. There is no explanation of how the device works.
Review:
I decided to read this novel because somewhere I read that it was a time travel story. Well, they were wrong. Ok, it has maybe five sentences involving a time travel closet that delivers newspapers from the future to help the main character solve the mystery, but that's it. So as a time travel story it's a dud. I'm not sure why it was even in the story as the author could easily have chosen some other way to provide the clues. As a murder mystery it was pretty good even if it had a slow start. Although the murder to be solved takes place at the very beginning of the story, the first third of the book introduces the characters, the romantic interest, and has lots of description to set the noir detective story atmosphere. It's not until half way into the book that things get interesting and the pace picks up with the introduction of an ancient artifact, the antikytherea mechanism. This is a real historical treasure discovered around 1900. The book adds some fictional information about it and an exciting back story. The plot then continues unfolding at a quick pace until the murder is solved at the very end of the book. I had difficulty following a few of the details of the final scene which transpired extremely quickly. The ending was good and had some suspense. I liked the middle part of the story the most. The characters were well developed, believable, and entertaining.
I received my kindle version as a free download from Amazon.
