Max and Markham are back (Markham still insisting on the name pros and cons - if you know you know) working outside of St Mary's this time as they investigate a sinister organisation that has designs on changing history.

Jodi Taylor had yet again produced a fantastic adventure through time, but this time taking it out of the relatively comfortable environs of St Mary's. How will Max and Markham cope independently of St Mary's? Will Max's office job provide the rest she hopes for or lead to almost certain death? And will Max ever be able to go home again?

This is book 13 of the St Mary's Chronicles and is still so much fun. I'd suggest new readers to the series start from the first book but so much fun awaits you if you give it a go. The plots are madcap and exciting, the characters are wonderful and the writing is so funny and thrilling.

I love this series. For the last few books I've had both Kindle and audiobook versions, which I've alternated between depending on what I'm doing.

Zara Ramm is easily the best choice for narrator; she gives Max the perfect voice.

The story in this installment is a little different, with Max now out of St Mary's. The story is just as manic as you would hope, however, so no worries there.

I'm hoping for more, and can easily recommend this series.

Max is back, no longer a member of St Mary's, but a 'recover agent' instead, which still involves time travel. She and Markham go undercover go work out the who and why behind an assassination attempt. I won't say for for fear of spoilers.

Jodi Taylor's writing is both comedic and poignant, she bends the historic and sci-fi to he will with ease. She characters are so real you feel you know them... so what's not to like? Well, 13 books in and it can feel a little like you are loosing grip on the overall narrative. At first the books were quite formulaic in their plotting and this was okay, because there was always A LOT of moving parts to keep track of in the novels. Now they are more complicated, and the reader feels as if we are moving towards something we do not yet see or understand but which probably has something to do with the Time Wars... When reading these later books the reader sometimes feels a little 'lost'.' That said, of course, I will stay for the journey, because I love these books.

If you are new to the series, please PLEASE don't jump in here, go back to book one and start at the beginning.

I always enjoy the escapades and adventures of Max and St Mary's
13 plus stories in and I'm still hooked.
A perfect balance of humour and serious issues as we are taken away from cosy St Mary's with Max and Markham who are working to find out what terrible organisation is working to change time.
I laughed, I cried and enjoyed every sentence of the story.

This felt like a real return to form for this series. I had been dragging myself through a few of the previous as I felt invested in the story, but it was getting a little repetitive. Same bad guys, same problems. The change of setting to a mysterious library in the near future really caught my interest and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the building up of details of relationships from earlier in the series and a few new characters. Thrilling and interesting!

We’re back! With St Mary’s…. Oh no wait no we’re not. Max and Markham as still moonlighting as “recovery agents” at an undisclosed location as they hide out from the powers that be that have taken over our beloved establishment. This instalment was ok, I miss St Mary’s and the gang, they are here but only as side characters which seems all wrong. Even the history is beginning to feel a bit side lined as Taylor is obviously building to some Big Events in future books, I have been reading these along side the Time Police books and I do find myself getting confused about where I am in time and space which I suppose is kind of the point. Anyway it still has all the things we love about Taylor’s writing but I do want to go back to St Mary’s soon please.

"Finally - finally! - Max has that nice office job she's always wanted. The one with no heavy lifting and no one tries to kill her. Well, one out of two's not bad...

Punching well above their weight, Max and Markham set out to bring down a sinister organisation founded in the future - with a suspicious focus on the past.

Max's focus is staying alive long enough to reunite with Leon and Matthew, alternately helped and hindered by St Mary's. Who aren't always the blessing they like to think they are.

But non-stop leaping around the timeline - from witnessing Magna Carta to disturbing a certain young man with a penchant for gunpowder - is beginning to take its toll. Is Max going mad? Or are the ghosts of the past finally catching up with her?"

Because I know SO MANY people who are addicts of The Chronicles of St. Mary's!

I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

Jodie Taylor does it again.

Another incredible book about St Mary's. As always it was engaging and thoroughly enjoyable

I've enjoyed all the books in the St. Mary's series, and this is no exception. This one was an absolute joy to read. Time travel stories are right in my wheelhouse, and this was a bit of a heist story as well. The characters are so rich and well crafted. I love everything about this book.

With thanks to Jodi Taylor and Headline for an advanced readers copy of this book

5* no no 10*

It's no secret that I adore this series and I would read anything Jodi has ever written. But this one was a great addition to the series. Max and Markham are out in the big bad world together with Smallhope and Pennyroyal (What could possibly go wrong?!). We get out usual doses of hilarity and history in equal measure, but the sense of dread has started to set in... we're inching towards the time wars now. I'm worried for all my favourites!

Fantastic as always!

Another entertaining adventure with the team from St Marys.
Well written and a joy to read. I feel at home with these characters, and want to time travel with them although I am not sure my historical knowledge would be an asset.

Jodi Taylor's "A Catalogue of Catastrophe" has all of the happenings that I love in her books--harrowing escapes, self-deprecating wit, humorous grumbling, unexpected disasters, and a crazy journey up and down the Time Line. Yet, despite being the 13th book in the series, the action still feels fresh. My public library must not have books 11 and 12 (I haven't read them), so I was a bit adrift at the beginning of the book. But it did not take long for me to become engrossed in the narrative, racing to the finish. Despite (or because) of all that time travel, Max and company have all aged; their relationships have matured. But familiar characters pop up in the story and I feel as pleased as Max is to see them.
I highly recommend sitting down with a cup of tea and picking up this book!

Great book in a brilliant series, I loved this read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

This is the thirteenth episode in “The Chronicles of St. Mary’s,” the adventures of Dr. Lucy Maxwell, Head of the History Department at St. Mary’s Institute for Historical Research (which exists several generations into our rather unpleasant future), whose brief is to time-travel (a phrase they hate) back to observe historical events. The whole series has been a mix of wild adventure (because things always go wrong), an exploration of the nuts and bolts of historical causation (always plausible and often fascinating) and thoroughly British comedic romp. Except things have gotten rather darker in the last couple of volumes. Dr. Bairstow, the founder and Director of the Institute, was arrested (or kidnapped) by nefarious agents of the government and Max was thrown out of her job. I had wondered whether perhaps Jodi was winding down the series, especially since the appearance of her first-rate spin-off series featuring the Time Police themselves.

Now, Max and Mr. Markham, the previous Head of Security at St. Mary’s, who recently was discovered to have a secret identity and also had to go on the run, have become involved with Lady Amelia Smallhope and her butler/sidekick, Pennyroyal, a couple of very successful and very dangerous bounty hunters (er, “recovery agents”), whom we also had met in the previous volume. They’ve been taking down Bad Guys who are hiding out in the past and selling them to the Time Police, which has done wonders for their purses. But then Max and her colleagues are attacked for unknown reasons at their base of operations, which leads them investigate what’s behind it, which leads to the discovery of a previously unknown and very sinister time-traveling organization called Insight, whose activities may herald the beginning of the Time Wars. And something will have to be done about that. So it’s apparent that this series won’t be fading away after all. And that’s good news for all the many fans of St. Mary’s.

It's taken me a few days to settle in and write this review. I wasn't sure what I thought of the book in this context- did I enjoy it? Sure. Was it a worthwhile entry in the series? Yes. So what's the problem? I wasn't sure so I took the time to finish absorbing it and sort out what was bothering me.

And I did figure it out. It feels like a part 2 to Another Time, Another Place. This isn't a bad thing it's just a different thing than what we would usually expect from a new St Mary's entry and, now that I've figured it out, I'm okay with it...and looking forward to part 3!

I've read of the books in this series and I absolutely love them. They're really funny, engaging, at times heart breaking, and involve time travelling historians - what's not to like? Plus you get to learn quite a lot of interesting details about historical events. The latest instalment in the series does not disappoint, and is as humorous and page turning as the others. I loved the part where Max goes undercover as a historical filing clerk - never has filing been written in such an entertaining way.

Never disappointing Chronicles of St. Mary's, this latest entry proves the rule. Jodi Taylor once more corrals the fractious characters, her version of history, and non-stop action in this funny, suspenseful, engaging story of the time travelling (sorry) historians, money grubbing criminals, politicians and police,
So anxious was I to read "A Catalogue" that I scoured my library for the previous couple of books, and even bought (!) the volume just before so that I could totally be up to speed when jumping on this train. Worth it.

Fun timey wimey book! I was unaware of the series ahead of time and now have been introduced to a great author!

My favourite time travelling historians are back in a no holds barred, fast paced romp through British history. This was far more of a heist in many ways. Max is still living and working off grid as a temporal bounty hunter for the notorious Lady Amelia and Pennyroyal. New temporal criminal concerns keep popping up leading Max and Markham into a dangerous infiltration situation. Fuelled with tea, historical knowledge and ill-deserved optimism, Max and the rest of St Mary's are once more courting disaster. Bloody brilliant. Don't be put off by the number of books in the series, if you haven't discovered this one yet, go back to book 1 and get going. You're in for a treat.