THE FROZEN PEOPLE

A trip back in time involves a British police officer and her son in a present-day murder.

Alison Dawson works for the Department of Logistics, a name vague enough to hide its true purpose: experimenting in time travel, something for which brilliant physicist Serafina Jones has developed a method. Ali’s traveled for very short periods, but Tory minister Isaac Templeton—who employs her son, Finn—wants to clear his ancestor Cain Templeton, who was suspected of murder around 1850, and asks her to go back for a longer stay. After some study of Victorian habits and clothing provided by an expert in period dress, Ali’s ready to leave. Since so much about time travel remains unknown, it’s a dangerous trip. The team has learned, for example, that travelers must stand in the exact same place they landed in order to return. Proceeding to 44 Hawk Street, a boardinghouse owned by Cain Templeton, most of whose residents were artists, Ali is greeted by the sight of Cain standing over the body of a dead woman. Although people think Ali is odd, she manages to stay in the house and investigate. But her portal is accidentally used by someone else, rendering it inoperative for her and leaving Finn and her team desperate to find a way to retrieve her. The man who used her portal may be a murderer now living in Ali’s present. When Isaac Templeton is found shot to death by an old-fashioned gun and Finn is arrested for his murder, one of Ali’s colleagues takes her place so she can return to the present and help clear her son.

Murder on several time planes is a fascinating premise enhanced by an enthralling look at Victorian London.