“Maquina, chief of the Mowachaht, watched impassively as the Pride of Whitby broke her back.”
Whether it’s by TARDIS, DeLorean, or magical remote control, we all fancy the idea of time travel at least a little bit. Here’s a new way of doing it, and not necessarily for the best intentions.
In a small mining town on the west coast of Canada, there is an old story of a native tribe who have a particular gift. Certain members of the tribe can, just once in their life, unwind the last six hours of their life and undo everything that happened in that time, with no one else remembering a thing. Ella Manning, the area’s only police officer, is attending a party at Black Lake Manor, hosted by her billionaire ex-partner Lincoln Shan, where he intends to show off his latest invention.
But when a storm blows in over the lake, trapping all the guests in the house, it puts something of a damp squib on the evening. The following morning, Lincoln is found murdered in his private study, with the door locked from the inside. Ella begins to work out who is responsible for the killing, but just as she approaches the truth, someone uses their power and she must start again, and with no memory of what happened before, she pins the blame on someone else. With a killer on the loose and someone messing around with time, how can she possibly know what really happened and find the culprit?
Morpuss’s first novel Five Minds was an outrageous sci-fi concept and I’m thrilled to see it wasn’t a one-off. This is a beautiful locked room mystery with a twist, and while I’d usually argue that adding time travel into a murder mystery story is cheating, here it works so well, I’m not bothered. The book leaps around in time from 1804, 2025 and 2045, showing how this time travelling ability came to be, how Ella, Lincoln and their other friend Noah grew apart, and then the time of the murder itself. It’s just far enough into the future to be an unusual world, although we don’t get to learn much about what’s going on outside of this pocket of Vancouver Island, so we’re left with glimpses of fascinating new technology, the realism of which I couldn’t possibly comment on. As a sucker for a beautiful board game, however, I was immediately drawn into the novel when early on we see a futuristic chess board. I’m wary to say anything else about it than that, but if that alone intrigues you, this is certainly a book for you.
Lincoln has shades of Elon Musk about him, and Noah serves as his counterpart who firmly disagrees with how corporations are polluting and destroying the environment, leaving Ella in the middle of them trying to keep the peace. There’s an underlying message about advanced technology versus tradition, and the mechanical world versus the natural one, which all plays out nicely. The characters are rich and complicated, and I have to applaud Morpuss’s talent for keeping the timelines all straight.
Definitely a good one to take a look at if you’re into time travel in any form, as this is certainly something a little different. May Morpuss have a long and interesting career ahead of him.