This review is an extended version of one originally published on Reedsy Discovery where I have the privilege of reading books before they are published, which is quite exciting!
I think that sometimes it is harder to write a review for a book that is good than it is for one that you didn’t like because if all of the elements are well-written for the most part, there’s not a lot to say. And Timeblink falls into this category: it was a really enjoyable read, tense and suspenseful with a plot that kept you guessing and a story that absorbed your attention.
Syd is a bartender who is in a happy relationship with a fireman (who wouldn’t be happy?) but has an event in her past which has always been difficult to fathom and that was the disappearance of her twin sister, Isla when she was just a young girl.
Syd develops a close relationship with one of her regulars called Morley but when he is killed suddenly and leaves a strange message for her with his dying breath, Syd’s life becomes opened in a way that she never thought possible – the chance to time travel.
Now that she has this ability, will Syd be able to finally discover what happened to her sister?
I liked the characters and the premise of time travel and the way that MJ Mumford intertwined narratives so that different perspectives and different voices were presented to the reader rather than just Syd, the main narrator. This was used as a device throughout to develop the plot but was timely and controlled in the book, not a clunky narrative tool to further the action and suspense.
From the opening where Syd’s twin sister Isla goes missing to the discovery that Syd is able to time travel and how having this skill could benefit her, Mumford writes with conviction so that Syd’s narration is sound and, as a result, what could have become a contrived and odd idea on which to base a book is, in fact, very well executed.
The events of the book unfolded at just the right pace for me so that I was keen to find out where the story was headed and rattled through it at a fair old rate. There are twists and nice touches all the way through including incidents that this jaded and cynical reader hadn’t seen coming which only added to my enjoyment of the book. In my experience, If you can see what’s coming in a book, it might make you as a reader feel a bit clever at the time but it takes something away from the pleasure of reading that book – there were no instances of that here.
So, all that’s left to say is that if you had told me that I would really enjoy a time travelling, romantic, missing person’s mystery, I would probably have knitted my brows and looked sceptically at you, thinking that you obviously know nothing about the kind of fiction I like but it’s true – MJ Mumford has made it a surprisingly good mix.
Scuffed Granny 