THE FLICKERING BRIDGE

In the second book in the YA SF series, 11-year-old Mick Conway time-travels to 1853 London, where his ability to see “time alleys” helps the Forsyth Institute monitor a potentially cataclysmic phenomenon.

Mick is under the care of the Forsyth Institute, a powerful organization that employs numerous adults and kids for its mysterious Project. He’s one of a cohort of “alley rat[s] who had dropped from distant futures into the past as babies or as terrified, confused children.” The Institute trains them to avoid inadvertently changing the future. However, when repeated sightings of “time lightning” begin, a ragtag group of gifted alley rats recruit Mick, who can see the details of time alleys better than most, to uncover who’s behind it. Meanwhile, Mick must manage his grief and his desire to return to modern-day Chicago. In the first book, An Ambush of Years (2024), he was still reeling from the death of his mother; his father remained emotionally distant as he and his younger sister, Emilia, were shuttled between various family members. Now that Mick knows that there’s “absolutely, one hundred percent no way for him to go back home,” his focus shifts to rallying around his found family. That is, until a new discovery suggests that people he trusted may be keeping secrets about the alleys’ possibilities. Enfield excels at fantastical, grounded worldbuilding, presenting a historically accurate London populated with rich, diverse characters. He trusts readers to parse a complex cat-and-mouse game and doesn’t shy away from the violence that underpins both the Institute and historical England. The novel boldly tackles themes of imperialism, colonialism, and racism in its story of Mick, the child of a Mexican mother and a white American father; he faces challenges when navigating London’s hard streets, and in an expositional discussion with Lady Penbrook, who runs the Institute, he comes to understand “that triumph can grow even out of the soil of violence and loss.” Overall, Enfield offers his readers a considerate protagonist, whose growth is aided by self-reflection and empathy.

A dynamic and intriguing SF mystery that explores the complex circumstances of lost and found families.