A very interesting concept, looking at the how time travel can affect someone's state of mind, and the effects this has on their surroundings and the people aruond them, but I found the jumping backswards/forwards in time confusing every now and then, as I wasn't quite sure of who/where/when the characters were coming from, as the conecpt of the novel included characters that can travel back in time and meet themselves, therefore giving multiple points of view from the same person.

I did enjoy it as a whole, but some parts needed more explanation.

I was intrigued by the premise of The Psychology of Time Travel. Time travel itself has always fascinated me, and I loved the idea of it being a group of women pioneers who actually made that leap for the first time. Also, the author herself is a psychologist, which I think lent a special depth to the characterization and some aspects of the story (notably mental health issues).

Characters

Within the first couple of chapters we are introduced to one of the main characters, Ruby, as she changes the oil in her motorcycle, and I was SOLD. I’m hopeless when it comes to mechanical things myself, but I love seeing women mow down that stereotype. Also motorcycles are just awesome. I miss ours…but I digress.

The characters – and there are MANY – are from various walks of life, various sexualites, various cultures. I enjoyed all the diversity but the constant perspective hopping became exhausting rather quickly. Especially since even after the book was halfway over, there were STILL new characters being introduced! I almost went cross-eyed trying to keep them all straight. That said, the friendships developed through the book are really what MADE the story. Not the romance – which was a little hard to believe – but the friendships.

I struggled some to connect with the characters, sadly, and only really felt invested in two. The others I didn’t really care that much about, they were interesting but if they lived or died I was just…meh.

The SCIENCE

Yes, all caps, because the amount of thought put into just how time travel would work – really, actually, maybe work – was very much evident. Unlike a lot of books with time travel elements, there are no dire consequences if your younger or older self sees you as a time traveler (no time-turner woes here), it’s just an accepted part of society and life for those travel. There is new slang and jargon for time travel and the occurrences that go along with it – even down to terms for sex with one’s older or younger self! The story also probes into thedisregard for death that most time travelers either already have, or develop through their career. After all, if someone they love dies, they can just travel back in time and see them again. Despite that…they aren’t actually able to change the past. It’s all very mind-bending.

The Mystery

There’s a behind-a-locked-door murder mystery plotline as well, and it was quite interesting. However, that is definitely not the main draw for the story.

Overall, 3.5/5 stars. The Psychology of Time Travel is a very intriguing story, especially if you like seeing things from many different viewpoints and angles.

Review posted on GoodReads and my blog at the link below (publishing 21 Feb on the blog).

I am a fan of time travel stories, so it was the title and premise that drew me in right away. It's definitely unique to have female characters as the scientists who discover time travel and become the pioneers of an entire industry around it. And the time travel tropes get a bit of a twist here, as multiple versions of characters can exist and interact with one another without the usual paradoxes that cause issues in these sorts of plots. Plus, incorporating the different reasons for travel is something few novels of this type do - revisiting fond memories and deceased loved ones, collecting items from the past to preserve in the present, finding out future events, political gain and espionage.

I like the way the book was written, with each chapter titled with the character it focuses on as well as the time period in which it is set. The crossed timelines made things interesting and seeing certain characters meet past/future versions of each other required paying a bit of attention. Ultimately, this novel is a murder mystery, so the skipping around definitely kept the mystery going. You don't need to be into scifi, time travel stuff to enjoy this one.

I just couldn't connect with this one at all--so many characters that I really didn't particularly care about any of them. And I got really stuck on the logistics of time travel and how it affected the timeline that really didn't seem to be explained very well at all, at least not to my satisfaction. Love that it's a story about female scientists, but it wasn't for me.

Kate Mascarenhas’ debut novel, The Psychology of Time Travel, sure ticks off a lot of boxes. Is it a book about female engineers? Yes, it is. Is it a book where some of the characters are women of colour? Sure. Is it a book where some characters are lesbians or bisexuals? Yep, yep, yep. And is it a tome where a character or two suffers from mental illness? Tick, tick, tick off those boxes, too. Thus, you can easily conclude that there’s a lot of good stuff going on with this book, which is a mystery thriller as well as being a sci-fi novel about time travel.

Well, I have good things and bad things to say about this read, so I’ll start with the good first. For a book about time travel, there are some interesting rules about the subject that this book sets down: namely, time travellers cannot change or alter the future and past. Paradoxes do not exist. How the book deals with this is quite novel and original. What’s more, it is possible to communicate with people in the past or future by telephone. As quirky as that might sound, that, to me, is an original thing that the author has cooked up about time travel. Thus, the author has deeply thought about the rules of time travel and how they shoehorn into her story.

However, as much as I hate to say it for all the good that this novel does, this isn’t a terribly well-written book. There are no literary fireworks, and the writing is pedestrian enough to get into a non-paying SF writers’ market, let alone one a notch or two up into quasi-pro. It’s also a hard book to get into. The book starts off with what seems to be a murder in a locked room. While blood and violence are more than suggested, the way the scene is written makes one wonder if the best way to enjoy the gruesome spectacle is by drinking tea and eating crumpets.

The Psychology of Time Travel is a story about four British engineers, all female, who, in the book, invent time travel in the late 1960s. Flash forward to the present and one of them winds up being found shot to death in the boiler room of a London toy museum. The woman who finds the body suffers from some post-traumatic stress disorder of sorts, and figures that the best way to deal with it is to join the team of time travellers called the Conclave that the four pioneers have set up and try to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, one of the four pioneers got kicked off the team early because she suffered from bipolar depression, and her granddaughter winds up having an affair of sorts with another one of the pioneers for no discernable reason.

If that sounds like a lot of plot, well, it does because there is a lot going on in this novel. I would argue that it’s too busy. New characters are introduced and then thrown to the wayside, making it tough to understand what’s really going on. There are also several plot holes and things that don’t make much sense that is so big or problematic in the context of the novel that you could drive a Mac truck through them. One of them is that the original group of time travel pioneers, sometime in the late ’80s and early ’90s, constructed a toy for children called a Candybox, where, if you dropped candy into the box, it would be transported exactly one minute into the future. Besides being a rather dumb idea for a toy, it turns out these boxes were recalled because sometimes the candy would ricochet back and injure the child — but somehow the author ignores the fact that time machine technology in this book runs on nuclear fuel that produces radiation, so my question is how on earth would a time travel toy for children get approved if it emits radiation? How would that even happen?

However, the novel’s biggest sin is that it’s quite boring — I really had to force myself to read this book, which is strange since time travel is such an exciting subject — and oftentimes this volume doesn’t make much sense. We’re shown that new time travel recruits to the Conclave have to undergo hazing rituals in order to make the cut, and one of those rituals is going up to strangers and informing them that a relative they love is about to die (a fact that the person being tested in the ritual would know about because, well, they’re a time traveller). Think about this: even though the novel makes the point that the Conclave is sort of like the Vatican with no outside influence on it, I’m pretty sure that this “Angel of Death” ritual — as it is known as in the book — would very quickly be stopped by the police or government after howls of outrage from the public.

In the end, The Psychology of Time Travel is a very silly little book. A lot of it just doesn’t make sense, and it is too smug in its own rules about time travel to be taken too seriously (there’s a list of time travel slang terms at the end of the book, to wit). It’s too bad that it is such a disappointing read, because the book does a lot of good for the role of women in science, the role of people of color in terms of visibility and the role of people who suffer from mental illness to a degree in this volume. However, when you write a book, you must do more than just check off a list of things that are admirable to include in your story. You must write something engaging. That’s a checkbox that Kate Mascarenhas doesn’t tick off, leaving her work surprisingly mundane and every day for a topic that’s so extraordinary. Too bad. So sad. Try again next time.

I’m thrilled to finally share my full review of The Psychology of Time Travel by the incredible Kate Mascarenhas. This book completely captivated me, and I actually purchased the hardcover and am on a second reading of it because I loved it SO much! On my second reading, I'm picking up on so many wonderful clues and moments that weave together and delight me even more now that I can place them in the context of the full novel. This is a book that should be read many times--the best kind of book in my opinion!

About the Book

In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project―and future of time travel―in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team―erasing her contributions from history.

Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?

Traversing the decades and told from alternating perspectives, The Psychology of Time Travel introduces a fabulous new voice in fiction and a new must-read for fans of speculative fiction and women’s fiction alike.

Reflection

Intelligent, intricate, delicate, and captivating... I am so in love with this novel! This is so much more than a mystery that involves time travel. To me, this is a book about the implications of being the first to do something groundbreaking, and about how different people react to power. Because in a way, time travel is power. What is at the core of each of us as humans? Would we all succumb to the mental and emotional impact that time travel has? At what point do we lose point of what makes us humans, who love and feel emotions, and experience highs and lows?

If like me, you are uncertain about a book about time travel (I rarely read science fiction, fantasy, or related genres) then I encourage you to branch out. This story is really one that needs to be told. I think the characters were perfect—even the ones that I didn’t like. I wouldn’t change a thing about any of them. And the time travel is hard to describe—it is the essential core to the book, but it is also not the focus. The characters, their stories, the way they develop, and the mystery—that is what the book is about.

I don’t want to spoil anything, so I want to be careful here with how I describe the four pioneers. I loved that they each had unique and distinctive characters. Even the pioneer that was the toughest on the others and, let's say, the most susceptible--even she was sympathetic and engaging as a character. This is a novel about the ladies! Nearly every stand out character in the book is female. Go girls!

I love the way Mascarenhas delves into the implications of this scientific break-through. There needs to be laws and codes on conduct, and there needs to be research into the impact on the human body and mind by unleashing this breakthrough. How do we determine who is best suited to hold this privilege? As a psychologist myself, the characters and how they develop throughout the novel were truly the best part. And by the end I found myself in awe of the way everything was tied together. There wasn't a single character, story, or moment that went unaccounted for. A masterpiece!

I received a copy from Crooked Lane Books. Opinions are my own.

The Psychology of Time Travel features four women who pioneered time travel technology (and their pet rabbit Patrick – the first time traveller ever), which I’m sure a lot of readers can appreciate considering females read more fiction. But that was just the setup for this book, the rest of it follows the ensuing establishment and the existence of the time travel organisation, namely the Conclave, and how it leads to the mysterious death of a woman.

This book covers a lot of themes including friendship, betrayal, power, science, feminism, mental health, appreciation of the minority groups that don’t make up the norm. The author even incorporates office politics as well as employee rights and mistreatments. It’s about how these themes affect the characters, how they shape the characters’ lives. They all revolve around a mysterious murder of a woman touching various lives in multiple timelines. It sure muddled my head (in a good way), jumping back and forth between character point of views in multiple timelines, trying to figure things out.

I adored details in the speculative part of this book, like how time travel shapes the world as we know it, from news headlines to children’s ambitions to toys and food. Somehow, to me, this bit is obvious that it has ‘a woman’s touch’. I don’t mean that it’s girly all over. Rather, it’s more like how a woman would think to bring tissues or facial wipes in her bag that turn out to benefit other people, and how a wife would know to pack a spare pair of socks or tie that matches all of a husband’s shirts in his bag when he’s travelling out of town for work. The details in this book are an example of the things that are often only thought of by women.

I certainly would pick up another of Kate Mascarenhas’s titles if I happen to see it.

If you think you know what time travel is like think again. Can't be in the same place at the same time - not true. You can have several of you from years apart in the same room at the same time. That allows the plot in The Psychology of Time Travel to move from a character from one time period to the same character from another time period while all are in the same place. And while that is part of the plot the action revolves around the murder of one of the main characters. We follow several people as they interact often without knowing that they are all part of the same story. This was very interesting with its different take on time travel and how different people saw the same action. The history, the backstory and the world building are all very well done and help keep the story line and characters moving. Pick this up for a very interesting and different murder mystery.

I receive a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The Psychology of Time Travel is the debut novel of Kate Mascarenhas, and believe me when I tell you that it is absolutely worth reading. The novel is being described as perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, which I agree with. It’s one of the most intelligent stories I’ve read about time travel, and I just can’t say enough positive things about it.
At the beginning of the book, Kate Mascarenhas makes a point of talking about her motivation for writing it. She said that she felt that there wasn’t enough of a representation of women, or people of color, in time travel plots. And she’s not wrong. I don’t think it ever really hit me until I read The Psychology of Time Travel, but I have never read something quite like this.
Going back to the Hidden Figures reference – picture Hidden Figures meets time travel - and you’ve got an idea of the tone of this novel. It’s smart and sassy and full of brilliant women of all types. It also tells a story of time travel that I’ve never seen before, and I absolutely adored it.
I went into The Psychology of Time Travel with high expectations, only to have those expectations completely blown away. This novel was so much more than I had ever hoped it would be. It was brilliant and well thought out. It also had strong and wonderful characters. More than that though, the characters were human through and through, for good or for bad.
I said up above that this novel wasn’t like any other time travel story I’ve read, and I meant that. I loved the concept of there being successfully time traveling, and that it would be open to…well not the general public, but certainly closer to it than anything I’ve seen before. It opened the door for a lot of debating and for a ton of content as well. A lot of which is actually covered during the course of the novel. The end result is a surprisingly complex and well thought out system of time travel.
The consequences and limitations of time travel are also covered. I loved one of the limitations in particular, but I don’t think I’ll spoil it by saying it directly. I do agree with it though, for what it is worth.
The complexity of the story being told combined with the dozens of interesting and unique characters truly created a wonderful reading experience. It was fun trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Especially since the puzzle pieces were handed to us out of order – courtesy of time travel.
I’ll admit that there were a couple of characters in particular that I was especially fond of, while there was one character that I just loved to hate. That they all had flaws made them feel so much more human and it made the situations they were in feel just a bit more possible.
This is one of those novels that really doesn’t need a sequel - it told the story it wanted to, and there are no parts left up in the air. However, I love the world created here so much that I wouldn’t mind seeing another book or two. Maybe not involving the same characters, or even the same general time frame. I just want to see the world continue, I guess. I suppose that’s the sign of a well-written book though, huh?

Thank you to Kate Mascarenhas and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. This was a pretty cool book. I enjoyed it. I would recommend it.

Judging a Book by it's Cover - 2019-02-01
Time travel has been something that endlessly fascinates me. You add it into a book or movie and I'm there. I don't care what else happening. This seemed like it tackled the concept of time travel from a scientific realism standpoint, as opposed to full out sci-fi or fantasy, and I loved that idea.

( 2.5 Stars )
Review - 2019-02-16
The Psychology of Time Travel wastes no time. It felt like we were thrust right into the book almost mid-sentence. The beginning seemed very abrupt to me, there was no real scene setting or character introduction. It all seemed kind of rushed and straight to the point and matter of fact. I suppose that's fitting to an image of strictly professional and scientific ladies who have no time for other pleasantries, similarly fitting for a book about time travel where time isn’t really linear, but for me I found it kind of off-putting right from the start. I suppose I felt a little whip-lashed.

I never would have believed that a book about time travel could be slow moving or not very engaging, but I had the most difficult time staying on track reading this. I didn't take to the writing and I found that the cold introduction to the characters didn't do anything to help develop much fondness for them. They all seemed like characters to me, just names existing in various dates and times; they didn't grow beyond the surface of the page I was reading and didn't really come alive. I found I wasn't fully invested in their story and kept getting distracted while reading.

That said, there were some great elements to this. Female scientists pioneering the field! The deeper conversations about how time travel affects the traveler mentally. I especially loved the time travel slang, and the aspect of time travel that I adore in all aspects is when timelines cross, and that happens fairly often here. This was really interesting to me. But I just couldn’t get past the fact that a story about a murder that spanned many layers of time was just… boring.

Surprisingly, it was the story arcs that didn't involve the four original pioneers that interested me the most. These added a lot more detail to the time travel process and how the Time Travel Conclave worked. This was what I wanted to know. All the other story angles took time travel for granted as a common everyday occurrence. But to the reader it's not and I appreciated this added context. This is where Mascarhenas was able to fully flex some imagination and creativity and that's what I was looking for in this book. I just wish the book elaborated a bit more on this. It touched on how time travel makes people cruel and turns people mad, but other than loosely using that to create a villain in Margaret, this wasn’t really explored or expanded on and it could have been really interesting to read more about.

I'm really torn on what to think. Time Travel is such an interesting concept to me that I want to fully embrace and experience this wonder any time I embark on a story about it. But I find, once again, in this case, Time Travel is more of a tool to drive the overall message and picture than anything else. Time Travel could have easily been replaced with another scientific experiment and we would still have similar results, just in a more linear time frame than what played out here. What I'm saying is this was more about the abuse of power and authority and how when something is discovered, how easily it can be used in vain, not necessarily a story about time travel. And that's perfectly fine! In that sense, this was a good story. But that's not what I was looking for and not what I wanted from this.

** I received an advance copy of The Psychology of Time Travel for honest review through Netgalley from Crooked Lane Books and thank them for the opportunity to read this and share my thoughts.

The story became interesting to me after a few chapters, though some things seemed to take far too long. I didn't really care for the romance, probably partly because the two people concerned didn't seem all that wholeheartedly for it either a lot of the time.

Some parts were fun, like one version of a person finding another version of themselves annoying or brash. I also liked that one part of the big mystery would be solved only to have it become apparent that a different part needed to be explained. For the most part the way time travel worked in the book was clear, though I did wonder about something to do with the Candyboxes that just didn't make sense to me.

There were a few too many characters to really keep track of, but a couple stood out. The main villain was plenty convincing, and I thought Odette was a great contrast to that individual. Odette was probably my favorite character, and it was worth following the story just to see what would end up happening to her.

This is an interesting cover and I quite like it. The longer you look at the cover, the more details you'll see and they fit the story so well. I listened to the audiobook for this one and the cover for that one has even more details! The four scientists at the bottom made me so happy to see. I also really like that there are years on this cover. 

The Psychology of Time Travel is a pretty complex book and it demands your full attention when reading it. There a lot of different characters and different timelines. For me it wasn't always completely clear which year I was reading about and I couldn't look it up as I was listening to the audiobook. Apart from different timelines we also have different storylines. Since it's not told linear it can get a little confusing at times, but believe me, its worth it in the end!

As mentioned, there are a lot of characters but slowly it all comes together and that was so beautiful and so much fun. I especially love love loved how all the smaller POV's came together with the bigger ones. The story has a murder mystery as well, but it was like a very chill one? I felt like the murder mystery was a very small part of the story but the resolve was super satisfying! The ending of the book brought tears to my eyes <3

It was super interesting to think about how time travel would effect the psyche of the time travelers. I haven't seen this done before and especially as a psychologist I loved this. This might actually have been my favorite part of the whole story. For example, the time travelers check when and how they die and who the marry. This also has an effect on their actions and it was so interesting to read and to think about. Would you want to know these things?

Like I said, I listened to the audiobook and that was so well done. There were a lot of different accents during the story and it was so enjoyable to hear them all be done so well. I loved all the different representation we got in this story. It's quite a diverse story with a focus on women in all sizes and shapes, colors and sexual orientations. 

There are a lot of characters and I won't talk about all of them but I do want to mention a couple of them. Barbara or Bee is the first character you really get to know and I loved her a lot. She was quite relatable and endured a lot during her life. I loved her storyline and her growth. 

Now Margaret was a super unlikable character and I kinda hated her. She is very cruel and her ambition makes her loose sight of what it important in life and what is ethical. 

Ruby was quite interesting to read about and I really liked her. But one of my favorite characters was Odette! I loved her and her mind. She kept going until she was satisfied and I loved that resolve.

This is a highly original speculative fiction novel with sci-fi, romance and murder mystery elements, by a first time author who manages to pull a story together brilliantly despite multiple time lines and character perspectives. Much like last year’s “7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” this is a bit of a brain melter but is totally worth the extra attention required.

In the late 1960s, four female scientists, working out of a remote base in Scotland, invent a time machine and become known as the Pioneers, rapidly developing the technology and creating an institution to control it, known as the Conclave, which has its own laws, ethics, culture, training system and politics. Ousted early on after a psychotic break triggered by too much time travel, Barbara has led a quiet life for the following fifty years, but when she receives a report of a mysterious death, her grand daughter Ruby, a psychologist, gets involved to try and protect her. Meanwhile Odette, a young woman from Seychelles who longs to be a detective, finds the body and, suspecting a cover up, joins the Conclave to solve the mystery.

I loved that this was a book, about the traditionally male theme of time travel, where all the main characters are women, and some of them are not white, and some of them are not straight, and this is portrayed in a totally accepting way where nobody’s gender actually matters. I got really sick of people (including my husband) complaining that the latest season of Doctor Who was “too politically correct” as if this was a bad thing, when all it was doing was showing the diversity of modern Britain. Unfortunately DW was let down by crap plots rather than the fact that a woman was in charge, but that is definitely not the case here.

Yes it was hard to remember who was who and how they all connected, it’s a book best read quite quickly so as to keep track, but by noting the time period marked at the start of each chapter, and once the “rules” of time travel were established - quite different to normal sci-fi tropes, it did all slot into place for me. There were perhaps a few unnecessary characters whose arcs didn’t get resolved but I liked the inter-connections between the main protagonists and how good people tackled the moral dilemmas created by unrestricted time travel which was restricted to a select few.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. The Psychology of Time Travel is available now.

Over fifty years ago, Margaret, Lucille, Grace, and Barbara worked together without pause until solved the problem of time travel and built a time machine that not only moved bunnies but people. All that work, pressure, and the time travel experience itself was too much for Barbara who had a psychic break during their press conference announcing their discovery. The dogmatic and domineering aristocrat Margaret could not stand for it and banished poor Barbara from anything to do with the Conclave, the bureaucracy she created to manage time travel.

In 2018, Odette discovered a dead body, someone shot in a locked room. She seeks therapy from Ruby Rebello, who happens to be Barbara’s granddaughter. Odette is haunted by the mystery and wants to answer the riddle of how the dead woman ended up in the boiler room. Meanwhile, Ruby is following clues of her own and both are led to the Conclave where Ruby meets Grace and Odette finds a mentor. Can Odette solve the locked room mystery? Will Ruby solve the mysteries in her grandmother’s life? Will Barbara ever get justice?

I think The Psychology of Time Travel is wonderfully inventive and original. However, I almost gave up on the book about a third of the way through. I had no idea where it was going and why it was proliferating so many characters. They came together, but I do think the book might be stronger with fewer characters. I am glad I stuck it out but I found it uneven, much better at the end and the beginning and a bit of a muddle in the middle.

This book is perhaps a little cavalier about paradoxes since it allows a multiplicity of one individual to meet together for a party or one person to perform a pas de deux with herself. Overall I enjoyed and loved the time travel taxonomy that is developed.

The assumption is that time travel hardens people, but perhaps that is the wrong lesson. Organizations develop in the shape of their founders and the Conclave is as sociopathic as Margaret and that is perhaps the real psychology of time travel.

I received an e-galley of The Psychology of Time Travel from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Psychology of Time Travel at Crooked Lane Books
Kate Mascarenhas author site

Take The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants + Hidden Figures + Time Travel and you've got The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas. The concept is absolutely fantastic - four women invent time travel in the 1960's and soon learn about the devastating effects it can pose. Use of the time travel machine can lead to the traveler experiencing a mental break. This book is exceptionally written and weaves in romance, sci-fi aspects, and even a healthy dash of a whodunit murder mystery.

I received a complimentary ARC copy of The Psychology of Time Travel
by Kate Mascarenhas NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books in order to read and give an honest review.

... A unique and interesting entry in the time travel genre. 

I have always been a huge fan of time travel stories. Kate Mascarenhas’s debut The Psychology of Time Travel focuses on what happens to people's psyche when they travel back and forth in time. What would happen if you could go back in time whenever you wanted and spend a day with loved ones who have passed away? Would it change how you view death? Would you take life for granted? The Psychology Of Time Travel answers these questions.

When four women discover time travel in 1960’s they launch an empire for themselves called “The Conclave” When one of the pioneers, Barbara suffers from a very public psychotic episode she is removed from the team and ostracized. The beginning of the book lays the groundwork for each of their personal journeys and how they adjust to the ability to travel and to meet their future or “silver” selves. Some flourish, some flounder, except for Barbara who is not allowed back and not only loses her purpose but her friends too.

The book picks up in the modern day when Barbara receives a cryptic clue of a death notice about an elderly woman who is murdered in the future. Barbara and her psychologist granddaughter Ruby begin trying to unravel the pieces. There is also a suspicious and puzzling murder of a woman in a small museum which occurs in a locked room with no way in or out. The body is damaged beyond recognition, no one is certain who it is, why they were there or how it happened. When a young museum worker Odette finds the body, she is traumatized, ends up seeking counsel from Ruby and can’t rest until she finds out what happened. Odette follows her suspicions and even goes undercover at the Conclave to get to the bottom of it. How could she solve a murder where the murderer could slip in an out of time?

Told from various viewpoints and throughout various time periods, this book tracks multiple characters jumping back and forth in time, some even meeting their future selves in the same room. It takes a while to catch onto which "version" of the character is present.

A unique and interesting entry in the time travel genre. Mascarenhas has created a very character driven novel with multifaceted characters who you grow to care about.

Definitely, an emotional roller coaster filled with mystery and fantasy. I look forward to reading more from this author. Highly recommend!

Debut novelist Kate Mascarenhas has crafted a thoughtful, intricate, time-traveling murder mystery in The Psychology of Time Travel. In this alternate history, four female scientists create the world’s first time travel machine in 1967 that results in a powerful corporation of time travelers who travel back and forth from that time period on through the future. I appreciated how the author thoughtfully portrayed the psychological and sociological implications that would happen as some people can transcend time while the rest of “plodders” can only progress one way through time. How do your thoughts about death change when can you know your own death date ahead of time and can also do one last visit of all your loved ones? Does death lose its significance? How does the nature of love change? How do you investigate crime without changing the future? The novel delves into all of this and more. One of the strengths of the novel is how it deftly portrays how power can corrupt. The biggest weakness for me is the subplot about the one who scientist who had a mental breakdown as they announced their discovery. For some reason, it struck a discordant note with me. Overall, it is a stimulating read.
Thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and the author Katie Mascarenhas for an advanced electronic review copy.

[Excerpt]:

This is a story about time travel. It’s also the story of a mysterious murder and who committed it. Since this was Mascarenhas’s debut novel, it’s obviously my first time experiencing her writing. The premise seemed promising: 4 women scientists (hallelujah!!) discover time travel, and after shunning one of their own who has a breakdown on TV during the reveal, they form the Conclave, a corporation responsible for the management of time travel and time travellers. It’s not often that women are credited with world-altering inventions (in fiction, yes, but definitely in real life, too), so I figured I would give this book a try. The cover was nice and whimsical, the synopsis intrigued me, and I rarely, if ever, read books about time travel, so I was overdue.

And let me tell you: I was NOT disappointed!

This book was told in such a refreshing manner. While I was reading it, all I could think was: “This is SO SOOTHING.” Mascarenhas’s writing is the equivalent of sitting down in a comfy armchair with a blanket and a cup of tea, next to a roaring fireplace, while rain or snow falls outside. The author is British, which clearly comes through in the writing (not to mention the characters live in and around London), and the dialogue and descriptions flow smoothly. There’s no awkward sentences or stilted conversations. Everything is cozy and warm. Even though the major plot is that of a murder, and some portions of the book may be loosely “thriller-esque,” I never felt anxious or afraid for what happened next. Something about Mascarenhas’s writing makes the entire atmosphere of this book delightful. I finished this book in only 3-4 days because of that feeling.

[Full review on my blog!]

An interesting book about the beginning of time travel and the consequences. While it can be a little hard to follow jumping from time period to time period i did enjoy reading it