A Locked-Door Murder Mystery in a Poorly Conceived Alternate History

The Psychology of Time Travel provides the reader with an alternate history in which four women scientists develop time-travel technology in 1967. Fifty years later, a fifth woman discovers an unidentified body inside a locked room and becomes obsessed with solving the case, while a sixth woman worries that the dead woman is her grandmother and launches her own investigation. While this seems considerable grist for a tense, suspenseful mystery, the book falls somewhat short of that goal. Part of the reason is suggested in the two-sentence summary above – there are a lot of characters (more than just these six). Additionally, the chapters are short, moving among these individuals and across time periods in an unpredictable sequence of flash forwards and backs, making the story feel choppy. And finally, the mystery isn’t maintained. By the midpoint of the book, the victim is known and at three-fourths, the perpetrator. The rest is tying up loose ends, which is rather dry.

In general, character development is good but with as many people as there are, some are included only to be victims. Romance between some of the women helps with development, although as is often the case in thrillers and mysteries, the sex is superfluous to the plot and often seems like a means to kill time (pun intended). The villain was particularly loathe-worthy, as she descends into unbridled narcissism and cruelty. There are also the usual thought-provoking paradoxes in the concept of time travel. So, even though in this version of the capability, history cannot be changed, wouldn’t the mere presence of items from the future change its course?

The primary weakness of the book is its alternate version of history. Time travel would be the most revolutionary and dangerous technology devised by humanity in 1967. And yet, when the scientists extensively self-experiment (which is improbable to start with) and one develops a mental disturbance that’s caught on camera for the world to see, there is no outcry, no public health group demanding a moratorium on testing. Rather, the group’s leader ostracizes her, which also fails to generate negative press for her callous treatment of the mentally disturbed, and the technology is commercialized. Now, with everything from new, life-saving technologies to advanced weaponry just an easy trip into the future, what’s brought back to 2018? Not much beyond some new types of candy and a few plants that were about to become extinct. Psychology still uses paper-and-pencil tests and dream interpretation. The British government doesn’t declare time travel essential to national security, despite the immense threat it poses, leaving the three women to manage it. There are no foreign spies trying to steal it, no industrial espionage, not even much use of it for personal gain (beyond sex). The only control against proliferation and misuse is the exorbitant cost of the fuel – 500,000 British pounds for a single piece. And yet, one of the few commercial uses of the tech is as a child’s toy; it makes a piece of candy disappear by sending it a minute into the future. With the cost of fuel, it would be a gift that gives new meaning to the phrase, ‘batteries not included’.

Overall, The Psychology of Time Travel provides the reader a decent, if not exceptionally suspenseful mystery. It’s unfortunate that its alternate history involves inexplicable changes in human perception and significant lapses in public policy, as well as time travel.

Really, really cool!! I found this book super creative, refreshing and interesting, A really compelling read that sends you into this universe, with a great cast of characters and REALLY interesting turns, i really liked it a lot!!

This! Yes! This is a time travel novel of sheer perfection.

A time-travel mystery melding with a wide-reaching character study. I'm flabbergasted. The Psychology of Time Travel was a gordian knot balanced faultlessly with an endless knot, wherein everything ties back into itself. Mascarenhas has written a wonderfully nuanced and brilliantly executed book that I could easily see myself revisiting again and again.

To try and summarize this book properly would require a dinner, a bottle of red wine, some great food, and everyone's undivided attention. I mean...give me the proper amount of elbow room. But, suffice it to say, that cannot be delivered here. Instead, just know that there is a complete cast of characters that is somehow so full but never overwhelming.

Mascarenhas begins with a proper opener by introducing the reader to the four female pioneers of time travel: Barbara Heresford, Margaret Norton, Grace Taylor, and Lucille Waters. Just as they are achieving the success for which they've worked so hard, Barbara has a breakdown in front of the press. Faced with the risk of upsetting the entire future of time travel, the other three pioneers oust Barbara from the project—permanently severing all ties to her.

What follows is truly an audaciously intricate passage through time—just not a direct path. Mascarenhas bounces around on several forward moving timelines. Along with a smattering from other times, the three major ones take us through events from the late 1960s through the early half of the 1970s with the pioneers; then with Ruby Rebello in 2017; and with Odette Sophola in 2018.

The older of the trio of main timelines guides the reader through the inception of time travel, the opening of its governing body, the Conclave—run by Margaret Norton, and its early beginning years. We get to know each early traveler and pioneer in stops and starts—including Barbara. The later timelines, nearer our own, reveal themselves as mysteries of sorts for Ruby and Odette to explore separately—and simultaneously considering the time traveling aspect. Ruby's involves mysterious information and uncovering and deciphering the proper clues, while Odette's actually involves the case of an unknown victim of a homicide. Odette discovers the body of an elderly woman and is unable to rest without combing through the facts and discovering the truth for herself. All ending with such a delightfully insane trial that I read it through twice.

The plot unfolds in a fantastically subtle and organic way, despite its nonlinear construction, even down to the characters’ last names, their timelines, and their role in the story itself. Boasting fluid storytelling and unchangeable plot points, this book is as captivating as it is complex. The utter uniqueness of The Psychology of Time Travel made me want to start the book over immediately.

I just absolutely love time travel stories and The Psychology of Time Travel was epic. A fascinating read about what it would be like if travelling time was not only a reality but common, everyday occurrence! This story explores a lot of issue surrounding the concept of time travel which I certainly enjoyed. It was complicated with characters having several selves as they moved back and forth between various time zones.

If you enjoy time travel I think you would like this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Crooked Lane Books for a copy to read and review.

While I really wanted to love this book, it wasn't a good fit for me. I absolutely loved the concept-female scientists and a focus on female relationships, murder mystery, plot told from different viewpoints-I found the book hard to follow if you're not someone that is able to focus absolutely fully concentration and read large portions of the book at once so you don't stretch you're reading time too much. Unfortunately, I'm not able to always devote those things so the book was a bit difficult for me to read. The plot was extremely intriguing though and I think it could make a fantastic limited run TV show.

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this, but I spent the first half a little confused (my own issue, not because of the writing) so I’d really like to reread and see how it affects my experience to understand who is who and how they relate to begin with. I thought there were some really interesting points on how time travel changes your perception of the normal parts of life: how you view death, relationships, aging, and yourself at different points in your time line.

<spoiler> for example, when Grace admits she doesn’t know her age, but instead tracks her heartbeats so that when she dies her body can be returned to approximately when she would’ve lived to if she was a typical person not time traveling, or when Ginger resigns herself to staying married because her time traveling daughter thinks her parents stayed married. </spoiler> I found a lot of that stuff particularly fascinating and found the tying of all the mystery threads together to be really well done.

I will publish this post on 19 December.

About:
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenshas is a novel which imagines the world if time travel was invented in the late 1960s by four female scientist, and a murder being investigated across time. This is Ms. Mascarenshas’ first novel.
Thoughts:
The premise of The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenshas sounds very interesting, a mystery being investigated across time, starring a mostly female cast.
The book has a lot in it, a murder-mystery which drives the plot, but I found the world building a lot more interesting. The author envisioned a futuristic world where time travel is a business, used mostly for commercial purposes and military logistics. It is not available to the general public even though they are aware of the technology and reap its benefits.
The chosen time travelers are beholden to the company, who is beholden to no one. They have their own rules, laws, and currency (since those apply differently based on which era you land governments are ineffective). Time travelers can meet themselves, interact with their past and future selves and think nothing of having get-togethers with several versions of themselves.
The future, however, is set and time travelers are forbidden to interfere, only observe. But if a past-self observes a future-self, wouldn’t that – almost by definition – change the future events?
The author also imagined how time travel would change a person’s psychologically. After all, no one “really” dies since you can always go back in time and visit them. You know that someone is going to wrong you in a decade, but you have no reason to be nasty to them in the present. She goes into very interesting tangents on how time travel will change ones outlook, in life and love, as well as their own mortality.
The novel has many characters in it, and because every chapter jumps in time, there is no linear quality to it. This is fine but I had a tough time keeping track of who’s who. I had to go back and re-read some pages, even go back to the beginning to remind myself who this character is. At the end of the novel, I just didn’t care about any of them and the mystery didn’t hold my attention.
I enjoyed the world building parts of this book, it was original and mostly thought through. The psychological impacts of time travel (as the book title suggests) are very interesting and brought up ideas I’ve never thought about. I could have read a book twice that size just on those two subjects.
Synopsis:
Four scientist invented time travel in 1967, however one of them suffers a breakdown and the other three exile her fearing she would jeopardize the project. Ruby Rebello, granddaughter to the pioneer who broke down, receives a message from the future about a murder, which she tries to investigate across time.

This book concerns four female scientists who invent a time machine. Each woman brings her own particular skills to this project, Margaret is a Cosmologist, Lucille studies radio waves, Grace is concerned with the behaviour of matter and Barbara is working in the field of nuclear fission.
As time travel become established, it becomes harder to keep track of past and present events, especially when the body of a murdered female is found- of an age that corresponds to the female pioneers! We are then left following a series of clues to find out who is the dead woman, and what time period she is from.
This book requires full concentration and mine wandered half way through. I think that was because, as much as I was intrigued by the characters, I didn't know them or was greatly interested by them, and in the end, I wasn't much bothered by them. They didn't seem to have substance and the book was curiously flat. I know that science fiction is a Marmite thing, and I did hope that a murder thrown into the story would raise the bar somewhat, but I was still uninterested,which is such a shame,as it does raise really thought provoking questions of future time travel exploits.
It is a heavily female populated story, the treatment of mental health, whilst accepted in the 1960's doesn't sit well today, but the elements of this book just doesn't chime with me, sorry!
I have posted a copy of this review to Goodreads today.

Gosh, I did so want to love this book, but I knew that by maybe 30% in, if I had not engaged yet, it wasn't going to click for me. But so many others loved it, so it's definitely me, not the novel. I guess I've indulged in too many hard scifi time travel novels that this one, which reads more like a cozy mystery, diverged too far from my paradigm to work for me?

The world building was unique, the pioneering women of time travel were sympathetic, and the idea of time travel as a culture was interesting. However, I couldn't bring myself to care. Ruby, Odette, Margaret, Barbara, etc. -- they were just names and times and places to me, nothing I felt invested in. I wanted to care about how the travel was wreaking havoc on the mental health of those using it, but instead I just got confused by the timelines and bored with how little was happening. It's hard to find a killer when you have not just space but time to investigate, so why wasn't this more compelling?

In Cumbria, England, 1967, Barbara, Margaret, Lucille, and Grace invent time travel without thinking of how it would alter their lives and the world. The Psychology of Time Travel is an exciting female-driven, murder mystery.

Fifty years after inventing time travel, Barbara receives a notice of a death that will happen on January 6th, 2018. Her granddaughter Ruby agrees to help her grandmother make amends with Margaret in order to gain access to the time travel machines. On January 6th, 2018 Odette, an archaeology student volunteering at a toy museum, finds a dead body that the police aren't able to identify. Odette becomes overwhelmed by the mysterious death and decides she'll feel better if she can figure out who the dead woman is. After a strange visit from a younger Grace, Ruby is convinced it is her grandmother Barbara who will die.

The narrative tackles a lot of issues like friendship, marriage, betrayal, bullying, sexuality, loss, aging, and mortality. The characters have distinct personalities, desires, fears, strengths and flaws. My favorite characters are Grace and Ruby.

The Psychology of Time Travel is one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read. Unique, creative, it questions how time travel would impact mental health, relationships, business, history, and language.

The first time I started reading the novel I felt incredibly lost a third of the way in. I went back to the beginning and took notes on the times mentioned at the beginning of each chapter and names of characters (there are a lot) and that helped wrap my mind around the story so I could enjoy myself. The plot feels a little messy at times, but that's to be expected when characters are traveling through time (and even interacting with themselves).

If you liked The 7½ Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton or Dark Matter by Blake Crouch then I think you'll enjoy The Psychology of Time Travel. Some of the concepts are wild, yet when you think about it, they make a lot of sense. Complex, interesting and unique! I recommend this to readers 14-years-old+.

Trigger warnings: self cutting, blood, mental health, addiction, eating disorder

Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Overall: 3.6/5 rounded up to 4 on Goodreads

Thank you to Sarah at Crooked Lane Books for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

I loved going on this journey with Odette, Ruby, Barbara, Grace, and more. The world was very well established and grounded even when discussing big ideas like time travel. The mystery element helped propel the story forward, but there were wonderful character moments along the way. There was a deliberate choice made to make most of the characters women, even ancillary characters, and it's a lovely subliminal feminist statement.

This is a wildly original book with a plot that folds in on itself like an origami sculpture. Set in a universe where time travel is not only possible but commonplace, the world looks very much like our own, other than some people travel through time. It doesn’t go too much into the Big Rules (seriously, I lost count of the times a bootstrap paradox occurs) but it delves deeply into the culture. There is special lingo, there are practical rules to follow and the same person can and does hang out with younger and older versions of themselves. It reminded me a little of The Man in the Empty Suit, one of my favorite time travel novels in that regard. Like I mentioned, time travel is normal here and the novel reads like Hidden Figures or many of the historical science books that are so popular. The story goes from past to present and most of the events are explained sooner or later, even if the cause-effect relationship is not always clear. This novel is also full of rich, complex women who know what they want and how to get it. Men are almost an afterthought and relegated to husbands and fathers. This is one of those novels that makes you think and that you need to read carefully to find all the clues. Yet, it’s not confusing at all (which is the main issue with time travel in my opinion). As a bonus, there is a questionnaire at the end to see if you have the potential to be a time traveler. I got a high score, now if the Doctor would just choose me as his companion…
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Crooked Lane Books!

Thank you so much to Crooked Lane books for the eARC of The Psychology of Time Travel!
I have always been fascinated by the idea of time travel, both by the physics involved and the philosophical questions it raises. This book dives right into what all aspects of life - the law, love, physiology, would look like if we lived in a world where time travel was possible. It feels like you’re reading a real account, though I knew it was fiction- the story was written in such a way that I could totally suspend my disbelief.
Perhaps my favorite aspect was that all of the pioneers of time travel in the book were women. They were strong and flawed and totally human in their portrayal.
If you’ve ever been intrigued by the idea of time travel, you should definitely read The Psychology of Time Travel!

I love a good sci-fi book with time travel and I'm very interested in human psychology so this book was right up my alley. It introduced some very interesting time travel concepts and the mystery kept me reading quickly. I loved that time travel was created by four women and it was interesting how they ceased contact with one of their own to save face after sweet Barbara lost her mind while time traveling. It was such a lovely book, I enjoyed everything about it EXCEPT for all of the point of view changes, which did make this book confusing at times.

Psyched about this one. Just the synopsis alone was intriguing to me, and it was a lovely, nuanced read. I feel like we're not so far away from this being a scary reality, and it was fascinating to see how these women dealt with traveling through time, and interacting with their past and future selves.
I highly recommend this novel to fans of historical fiction, and/or with any curiosity about what themselves would do in this crazy, yet possible situations!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
In 1967, four female scientists (deemed “the pioneers”), develop the world’s first time machine. Soon, they are infamous and are known in every corner of the world. When one of the “pioneers”, Bea, suffers a mental breakdown, the other pioneers face criticism that could jeopardize their whole project. Could the time traveling have contributed to the breakdown? What effect does time traveling have on the human body, and the human mind? Fifty years later, Bea’s granddaughter Ruby receives a cryptic message from an unknown person, detailing the horrible death of a woman who could be Bea. It goes against all time travel rules for Ruby to step in—but will she risk execution to possibly save her grandmother?
“The Psychology of Time Travel” is a debut novel by author Kate Mascarenhas, which falls somewhere in the genre of science fiction, with a side of murder mystery.
This novel had a creative premise and a beautiful cover, and I was instantly drawn to it based on these facts alone. The storyline was indeed unique, told in a way that, to my knowledge, has not been done before. The story jumps across timelines (as you would expect with time travel), spanning generations and characters and there are many narrators, with each chapter being told from the perspective of a contributing player in the story.
This novel had an overabundance of characters, making the timeline jumps difficult to navigate. Of course there are the pioneers, but there are also their family members, and even other random (female) time travelers. There was at least two handfuls of characters, and that doesn’t include the times when there were two of the same character in a timeline (oh, time traveling).
Of all of these characters, there are only two men and they are mentioned in passing. One is the husband of a time traveler, and one is the father of another. None of these men play narrating roles, and are merely involved in the story only to add depth to the plot line of their female relation. I understand the author’s point in including an all-female cast (especially in a field like science which has a high population of men) but it was almost too much one way, and it led to a disconnect with the plot. In a random group of people (scientists or not), it is very unlikely that all of the people would be female, and that there would be an equal portion of women of colour and LGBTQ women. When you add a science laboratory setting, the numbers of women would decrease exponentially (sadly). This novel would have touched a stronger chord with me if the author had used primarily female protagonists, but had included men as well in positions of import. It was almost patronizing (matronizing??) to have an entirely female cast of characters, all from various backgrounds and sexualities (and I consider myself a progressive person). This fact made the novel difficult to connect with.
Overall, the novel was a creative read, and the premise was interesting. The novel being told across timelines made sense, but the murder mystery was also told in this way, and this took away some of the mystique, when the ending was given away before the characters got there. Mascarenhas has the writing chops for sure, and she has the potential to make a huge mark on the literary world, if she focuses on plot development as opposed to social justice issues. I look forward to her next work.

Advanced Readers copy from NetGalley-

Good book. Gave 4 stars for some misspelling of a few words, and it was slow to get started (for me anyway). I did enjoy the fast paced chapters later on. Starts with a murder, but the time traveling and how the characters dealt with it was really interesting. Some go to see their own deaths and funerals, or other important life moments (like births and marriages). Would’ve liked to know more about why time traveling stops working after a certain point into the future. But all in all a good novel.

Gah! I couldn’t get enough of this book! I devoured it in one day. I’ve been hooked on time travel books for ages and I loved this new take on a sometimes tired genre. Now that I think about how time travel would affect a mind I can’t believe there hasn’t been a more in-depth discussion about it in the pervious books I’ve read.

It was refreshing and well thought out. I also loved that it was a group of amazing women that made the discovery, but most importantly was used and managed by women and not taken over by men like most inventions/books seem to be.

I loved the characters and the time travel story but then throw in a murder mystery and I just couldn’t be happier. And did you see that cover 😍😍

I could not put down this book! I finished it in one sitting because I have no will power and I had to know how it ended. 

You know those book memes that are always asking which fictional setting would you like to live in? Well, my answer is this one.

This take on time travel was so unique and it's a mystery and it is full of strong female characters who each are main characters in their own right.

The prose is sharp and intelligent, but you don't have be a scientist to understand the basic mechanics of how time travel works in this universe.

What really stands out to me are the complicated relationships that are woven through the story. The actions in this book are all high stakes and no details are extraneous. If you want to figure out the whodunnit and howdunnit, you need to be paying attention the whole time. I didn't quite figure it out before the reveal, but I had a lot of fun trying to puzzle it out as I went along. 

I find it pretty amazing that this book is a debut. I was almost turned away by the fact that is classified as a thriller, and many thrillers are nearly rote at this point, but I'm glad I was not. It feels more like literary fiction than a thriller, or even sci-fi.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys intricate stories with strong female leads, even if science fiction or thrillers are not usually your thing. 

I received an ARC from Crooked Lane Books, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

Expected date of publication is February 12, 2019

I had the opportunity to read The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas, having received a free advanced digital copy by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review. I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read recently and I wasn’t ready for it to be over. When I read the last sentence it was with reluctance that I left the world that had been so intricately created with fascinating characters who both intrigued and, in some cases, repelled me.
Mascarenhas has created some of the most complex characters I’ve read in awhile. The book is filled primarily with strong female characters who are brilliant, accomplished, and successful. It begins with four scientists who invent a time travel machine which ultimately results in the creation of a time travel consortium that is run by one of the four. The book details how both ageing and the unique properties of being able to travel through time shape each woman’s personality and decision making. One might say it demonstrates the idea of becoming yourself, only more so as you age and in this instance how that is affected by the unique aspects of traveling into the future and encountering one’s future self and/or selves.
In addition to this personality study, there is a mystery that is paramount to the book and provides a framework for some of the time travel that is detailed in the story. The mystery is interesting, but is secondary to the overall story. It is the reason many of the characters are detailed in the book, and their purpose for some of the actions they take, but never is it presented as a puzzle for the reader to solve. Rather, it is something that is revealed to the reader as they travel along on the various journeys taken by different characters in the book. This approach increases the reader’s opportunity to sit back and enjoy the journey along with the characters in the book.
Early on we learn the problems time travel creates for one of the four inventors and how it places her on the outside of what had once been a tight-knit group of friends. We also see how one of the four pushes this ousting, and how her personality becomes more controlling over the years. We also get to watch a third member of the group as she moves through time and watch as her personality develops along different lines with perhaps a greater sense of accountability. A fourth member of the group doesn’t get as much mention i this novel and remains a question regarding how time travel and her participation in the invention may or may not have changed her.
Throughout the book there are some unique situations, such as individuals being allowed to see and interact with their future selves. This aspect of time travel creates some peculiar issues, particularly in how laws are developed and what methods are used when a law within the world of the time travelers has been broken. Add to this development a push by the head of the time traveler’s organization to desensitize travelers to certain aspects of life and death and you have the premise of an excellent novel.
I wasn’t ready for this book to be over when I read the final sentence. There were several characters with whom I would have enjoyed spending more time. The world in which they live has almost infinite possibilities because they can travel through time and thus it is only restricted by the limits of the author’s imagination. The best thing I can say about the end is that while it was a definite finish to this particular story, I could see many future stories being developed that might include both these same characters and others who, based on the results of this book, would also be well-drawn and complex in their development.