Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

How do you stop a murder when it's already happened? This intriguing time loop premise had me hooked. After witnessing a murder, a woman wakes up each morning on the previous day, again and again, careening back days, weeks, and eventually years as she tries to figure out what happened.

Late Friday night, Jen and her husband Kelly watch their teenage son Todd walk towards the house when suddenly a man leaps out, and Todd stabs him to death. The police arrest him, and Jen's world collapses. Somehow, she wakes up Thursday morning instead of Saturday, when the murder had not happened yet. Was it a dream? She is unsettled, then again wakes up the day before. As she investigates this strange phenomenon, she realizes each day has a clue as to why Todd killed. He may have been involved in a local crime ring; her painter/decorator husband may be the leader. She makes notes and sends herself emails, which all disappear when she arrives back on the the previous day as they have not been written yet.

Thinking she is stuck in a time loop, she seeks help from a scientist, who gives her a code as he will not remember her when they meet in the past. The jumps move from days to weeks, to years as she travels into the past to discover what caused the crime, what she can do about it, and how to return to her own time.

Jen is a lawyer who tackles this like a case. Todd is eighteen now and no longer a child, but she berates herself for being a bad mother, not observing his listless moodiness more closely. She snoops into his life, follows him, and meets the victim over the previous years. She returns to her youth and visits with her deceased father - what would you do or say with the gift of hindsight?

Her déjà vu is off the charts as she tries to convince people of what she is living through, with mixed results—never mind, they will forget it yesterday. Is it psychosis or a closed timeline loop? The scientific reasons are only a side plot device, as this thriller becomes more about the family and the crime. What will be revealed, and what will she do when she reaches the genesis of the crime?

This had some genuine surprise twists, but for me, it was overlong. Removing a good 100 pages would have tightened up the pace.

Well received with nine pages of praise reviews, this was indeed intriguing and entertaining.

2022 / Tradeback / 402 pages