Rating: 3 ♥’s
Published: October 1, 2021
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 278
He chases crooks. She dusts off maps. With important men vanishing, can one key document prevent death? Vancouver, 1897.
Jack Winston refuses to let his bloodline decide his vocation. Keeping his family connections secret as he joins the Constabulary, the rising detective works hard to make a name for himself on his own merit.
But when he investigates a missing young lawyer, he’s shocked to find his own journal connects him to a woman claiming to be from the future. Vancouver, 2017. Riley Finch adores history.
With life pulling friends and family further away, the archivist throws herself into her new position cataloging police files from the nineteenth century. And her excitement with her research bears thrilling results when she finds a way to contact a policeman from the past.
Despite his well-founded suspicions, Winston still struggles to wring answers out of his list of prime suspects. And as Riley risks her job to unearth useful information, she’s inexplicably drawn to Jack’s great-grandson but forced to keep both men in the dark. Can the pair forge a partnership across decades and solve an impenetrable crime?
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
First before I get into my review I just have to say that I love the cover of this book. I think the colors are so pretty and the design is great. Just had to get that out there.
I thought overall this was a fairly good start to a series. The premise is unique and I liked the idea a lot. You get a lot of dual timeline novels but you don’t really see them intersecting like they do in this one. You are able to see how it pans out for each character because they are communicating through a book. I also liked that if they were both touching the book they could almost feel each other. I do think there was something slightly missing in this book. I just didn’t feel the pull that kept me coming back to find out what happened next.
The book is written well and flows nicely between the timelines, which I like because nothing is worse than a dual timeline where you have to go back and go wait what happened before to get us here. I think the plot was good, it had some unique points to it and I liked that she was using her archivist job to help try and solve these murders. I thought it was interesting that somehow the connection between the 2 men wasn’t figured out by Winston earlier on. It was mentioned by both men’s families that they were interested in clothing and opening a shop so I found that odd that it took them a while to figure that out. I had a slight hint on who I thought might be behind it but I was surprised at the reason behind it and what ended up happening once they were found out.
The characters I thought were good and I liked that you learned a little about them as they got to know each other through their entries in the journal. I liked that in the beginning, they didn’t take too long to not believe what was happening, they went with it and this gave them someone to talk to about what was happening. I like that there was almost a slight romantic edge, but yet not really. You could tell if they were together in person it would probably be there. I do have hope for Riley and Winston’s grandson (you don’t really get as much of that as I thought from the description, instead you are dangled a thread and will surely find out what happens in the next book. I do think the way they interacted was cute). There aren’t a ton of supporting characters, you see Riley’s sister some and the Marshall helping Winston (he especially has a bigger role). I like that Winston interacts with him and they seem to have a friendship.
Overall I thought this was a good read. I do wish it had kept me pulling in a little more, however, I am still intrigued because of the uniqueness of it and definitely will check out the second one to see what other mysteries they solve.
Book Challenges:
- Around the Year in 52 Books #40 – With flowers or greenery on the cover
- 52 Books in 52 Weeks #7 – Author with only 1 published book
- Popsugar #7 – Where the main character works at your current or dream job
- Magic in the Books #38 – Featuring a strong friendship
- Linz Bookworm #18 – By an author born in the 20th Century
- NJM #18 – By a debut author
- The Nerd Daily #10 – Debut author
- Two Books a Month #3 – Debut author
- Mount TBR, Virtual Mount TBR, Netgalley/Edelweiss, Historical Fiction, Cloak & Dagger,
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