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 time, 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.

Max and Leon are trying to come to terms with the idea that their son has to continue living in the future with the Time Police to keep him safe from the lunatic Ronan. Since St. Mary’s is still picking up the pieces, they’ve had to leave the search for Ronan to the Time Police; something that Max doesn’t trust.  And they have apparently added another soul to their menagerie; a Miss Dottle who was the assistant to the not-lamented Mister Halcombe; who was satisfactorily dispatched away from St. Mary’s with an unfortunate case of leprosy.  But now that it’s been determined that the diagnosis was a bit pessimistic, he’ll be returning to St. Mary’s to continue to be a thorn in their you-know-what.  Halcombe reports directly to Thirsk, who signs their paychecks but Halcombe olcombH has literally no clue as to what St. Mary’s actually does.  Dottle had been doing a remarkable job in ingratiating herself with the team while apparently harboring an unrequited passion for Peterson.

Their first mission in this book is to Greenwich Palace in 1636. Their assignment is to observe a joust in which King Henry VIII will suffer a concussion which will, to all reports, cause him to have a major personality shift; becoming tyrannical and paranoic.  Although, there are some arguments that he was already those things before the tourney.  Now, to refresh our understanding about the Time Police: they appear whenever they determine a breach of the timeline will occur.  Max has had reason to be on the receiving end of their attention more than once; none of which were her fault, she’s sure.  As Henry takes the field, there is a gunshot.  The sound unnerves his horse and that’s when he takes the fall.  Max and her team discover the Time Police at the scene with a miscreant escapee from a bad Hollywood movie who thought he could change history with a well-planned assassination – just to impress his new girlfriend.  When what really happened is that his efforts actually brought about the same conclusion; History is funny about stuff like that.  Max has had plenty of opportunity to see for herself how History will cause the same outcomes albeit through a different means, whenever someone tries to change something.

While chatting a while with the Time Police, her old acquaintance Ellis had a bit of a proposal.  While the Time Police were cavorting all over the time line, they weren’t having any luck locating Ronan.  Ellis had the remarkable idea of laying a trap to bring Ronan to them.  And the bait for the trap?  Why, Max, of course. 

Once back home, Max brought the idea to Dr. Bairstow.  Not surprisingly, he thought it was a fine idea although his unexpectedly quick agreement frightened Max when he explained “the sooner, the better”; as there were no guarantees that his successor would be Peterson or would have the same priorities.  And Max is desperate to make this plan work as she and Leon would never have their own son to raise so long as Ronan continued to threaten him.

The plan is for all of St. Mary’s to hare off to Persepolis just ahead of Alexander the Great torching the whole place.  The opportunity to rescue just a few pieces of the treasure housed in that great city is not to be missed.  They might also have a chance to discover the reason behind Alexander’s change of heart.  In the meantime, a fabulously rare artifact is to unexpectedly arrive at St. Mary’s, ahead of schedule.  Max believes that Ronan would never miss the opportunity to swoop in while St. Mary’s is distracted and make off with the Crown; embarrassing St. Mary’s in the process.

As usual, nothing goes according to plan.  First of all, the two young teenagers in their large teapot-shaped time pod, whom the Time Police have been chasing all over, arrive back at St. Mary’s.  One of them has gotten herself shot and while it would be an easy fix in their hospital; every one of them is aware that the Time Police will be on-site in a matter of minutes.  So hilarity ensues while Max manages to hide Mikey in plain sight and further befuddle the Time Police.

But back to the Persepolis caper – as usual, nothing goes according to plan.  And for the second (or is it third?) time, Ronan manages to surprise Max and again(!) manages to strand her in an obscure place and time.  Even Max has to admit, he’s done a bang-up job; there doesn’t seem to be any way for St. Mary’s to know that she was taken, by whom, and to where.  It looks like she’ll be making her home in 1399 for quite a while.  Astonishingly, she finds herself at St. Mary’s and, to no one’s surprise who knows her, manages to burn down several structures and still come up as a heroine.  But after several months making herself a new home she is, in no way, prepared for the unexpected rescue.  Nor is she ready to confess to her husband, Leon, just exactly what she had to do in 1399 to secure a safe home.

This was the tragic portion of the story (all of them have at least one) and there weren’t too many opportunities for a guffaw or snicker. 

Once back at St. Mary’s and purged of all the parasites that hitchhiked back with her; she and Leon were pulled into an investigation of why a perfectly ordinary mission with three of their experienced people caused a cock-up.  So off they went with Peterson to follow-up on the mission to Waterloo only to have the same thing happen to them.  All of them seemed to have lost their minds and were ready to kill each other.  Max had some spectacular hallucinations involving Ronan and her son, Matthew.  Having found the culprit – a tank of hallucinogenic gas – they were still confused over exactly who did it, and what they hoped to accomplish.  But it wasn’t until Max was mooning over Matthew’s bedroom with all his childish toys still displayed, that all the pieces finally fit together.  And what a huge, mind-destroying epiphany that was; someone at St. Mary’s had actually betrayed them to Ronan.

While I have just about given away the entire story, it isn’t the same as actually experiencing it first-hand.  Taylor has a deft hand in managing a plot along with the expected humor and even navigating a tragic event for Max.  It is a rather tried-and-true story device to have a villain always lurking and never caught; but Ronan serves a very good purpose. The good guys try everything to catch him, sure they have figured out what’s he’s up to, only to come up short when he does the unexpected.  His presence allows Max to find ways to protect those she loves and keeps the reader on the hop.  No one reading these stories could possibly expect great literature; instead they expect – and get – a hilarious ride through History. ~~  Catherine Book

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