THE SHADOWS OF LONDON

A time traveler ready to settle into a new home and a new reality is convinced to return to the past to prevent a gang murder.

Having traveled back in time to rescue his sister Amy from her mysterious childhood disappearance in And Then She Vanished (2021), Joseph Bridgeman is in no rush to return to the past, even when friendly William P. Brown comes to Joe’s antiques shop and offers to be his time-travel mentor. Joe’s having enough trouble reconciling his new life. When he saved Amy, the previous version of him disappeared, and now he’s trying to fit into the alternate Joe’s timeline. The Joe who grew up with Amy was the family golden child, a little less reticent and a lot more into making big deals. And don’t even start on the differences in his relationships with women: Joe had been spending a lot of time with Alexia Finch, and now he’s evicting her. Alternate world Joe strikes again! Joe and Amy are pretending that Joe’s suffering amnesia after a bike accident to explain his total lack of recognition of his old life and ways, but Brown isn’t confused when he confronts Joe about messing around with the past. In fact, Brown, who isn’t as friendly as he seems, is determined to press Joe into returning to the past to save a woman offed by gangsters. Joe thinks his time-travel days have ended, but when Brown threatens to restore Amy to her own past, Joe has no choice but to take the case and travel back to 1963 to see what he can do. Surprisingly, most of the focus is on the present, which is easier for those who know the characters’ history to understand.

Travels to the past drive the plot, but it's the complexity of the present that makes this book worth spending time with.