Today, Sandie Herron reviews a time travel story, Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle. She’s not the only one who enjoyed this book. Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, enjoyed it enough that she hosted Riddle for a recent virtual event at The Poisoned Pen. After you read Sandie’s review, you can also watch that event from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore. (Thank you, again, Sandie!)

Lost in Time
Written by A. G. Riddle
Kindle Edition
Publisher:  Head of Zeus Ltd  (September 1, 2022)
Pages:  455
ASIN:  B09TCFTSPH

Sam Anderson is one of the inventors of Absolom.  Years ago a group of six friends came up with an idea, now known as Absolom, that changed the world.  Their invention freed the world of most crime yet the only machine was located in Absolom City in the Nevada desert.  Sam and his two children, 19 year-old Adeline and 11 year-old Ryan, are visiting his wife’s grave there when the police arrest Sam and Adeline for the murder of Nora Thomas, another Absolom inventor.  The police have damning evidence that places them in Nora’s home the night before.  The entire group of six had met that afternoon and were split in their agreement to work on Absolom Two, with Sam and Nora siding on the negative side.  Sam knows they’ve been framed, and the others agree.  Elliott, his best friend since college, Candace, who has been sick for a long time, Dani, who lost her husband to a car crash, and Hiro, the least social one, are the four remaining scientists who meet in Sam’s jail cell to determine what will happen next. 

Sam has decided to confess in order to free Adeline from the charges, as the blackmailer insisted.  Murderers are rare, and when they are found, they are sent through the Absolom machine to the past, the very distant past, hundreds of millions of years ago to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  There the criminal lived out their days in an alternate universe created by Absolom.  This way nothing the prisoner did could affect the present.  It is beyond irony that the decision is made to send Sam through Absolom to what would be the Triassic period, when earth’s continents were still joined in one land mass Pangea.

Sam leaves his children in Dani’s care.  Adeline is livid and vows to find a way to bring her father back.  She knows the true killer is still at large, most likely one of the remaining Absolom inventors, and vows to uncover the culprit.  The scientists continue their work on Absolom Two, in secret, something Adeline tries to learn more about.  Each one has their own personal secrets as well.  In alternating chapters, we follow Adeline as she searches for the killer, and we follow Sam as he fights for survival in the Triassic period. 

Yet this story is far from over.  The motivations of the scientists are explored as they work on Absolom, both in the past and in the present.  Adeline makes it her life’s journey to try and bring her father back.  And when Absolom Two comes into being, the world changes again.

I confess this story pulled me in quickly with its mystery and its science fiction intertwined.  The juxtaposition of the many time periods kept the story moving swiftly.  The search for the real killer never waivered.  Nor did the desire and work to bring Sam back home.  None of it was as straight forward as it may sound, with twists and turns in the mystery and in the science fiction.  None of the science overwhelmed me with unfathomable explanations; rather, the theories were given in snatches, as needed.  This was more a mystery about a science project, rather than pure science fiction.  I read to the wee hours of the morning.  The conclusion was quite satisfying, tying together the loose threads of time.