I enjoyed the premise of the story which is to travel in time to observe what is happening in the past. When Ali went back in time before, she went just to observe -- to see but not be seen. However, this time she is seen and becomes involved in the lives of the people there for the short time of her stay. In order to return to her own time, she has to go to the exact spot where she entered this world at the same time. When another person sneaks through in her place, she thinks she is stuck there for good. In her own time, a prominent member of parliament is murdered and her son is arrested for his murder. Once back in her own time (someone from the future comes back to take her place), she is intent on finding the truth because she knows her son is innocent. The murder in the present is connected to the her trip to the past. The dead man is the descendant of a man she meets in the past. I have to admit I began to be confused by the storyline.and felt the story ended abruptly although you can see the author is setting the story up for another book.

comfortable and engaging, but I feel like I had too many quibbles to wholeheartedly recommend this. I think one of them may be cultural because I didn't fully understand how these characters engaged with politics. It was a focus of the book and yet seemed to be something they hardly cared about on an emotional level. It mainly affected Finn's chapters for me because I felt like I never really understood him. His job felt like a surface thing he did but I didn't understand how it reconciled with his sense of who he was. Again, not a big thing if his political work wasn't a huge central premise of the story. As it was, everything felt half-baked. There also were some elements that felt unnecessarily fatphobic in a way that took away from my enjoyment. Unfortunately, that carried through to the resolution The premise was fantastic and I can see a lot of people enjoying this, but it just wasn't for me.

Since I’m neither a fan of fantasy nor sci-fi I was somewhat skeptical of requesting this title. Let me say, Elly Griffiths comes through again. Her historical research, her writing style made this a most enjoyable cozy mystery. I didn’t read it all in one sitting as I did with one of her other works however, a good read.

Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

This was a stunner of a series debut! As a long time fan of Elly Griffiths, I had high expectations for this - and boy did she deliver. Ali Dawson is part of a cold case team investigating unsolved crimes from the past... by using time travel. When landing in 1850, she is tasked with finding out more about a group called The Collectors and shed light on some unsolved murders. But why has Ali really been sent to the past, and when she gets stuck, will she make it home?

Can't wait for book two!

Anything in Victorian London will always get me! This time traveling mystery was a lot of fun to read - the only downside is waiting for the next in the series!

I think that this could be a really awesome start to a great new series. I feel as though the world has some more developing to do, but I can see the vision.