#TheKillingTime #NetGalley
My thoughts:
Elly Griffiths is one of my favorite authors. Her book are always a must read for me.
The Killing Time is the second title in Griffith’s newest series, following on The Frozen People. While this book could be read as a standalone, readers will most enjoy it if they have had the joy of reading The Frozen People.
The novels in this series do require suspension of disbelief. However, I am always willing to follow wherever Griffiths wants to take me.
These novels combine a traditional crime story and time travel. In this title and in the first book, most of that travel is to Victorian England. In the first book, Ali experiences the life of someone without money, while in the second, she is having a far more luxurious time with Lady Serafina, aka Jones, who is a character in both stories. Readers also revisit a number of the people that Ali met on her first time bending adventure. Readers may especially remember Cain.
In the present Ali and some of her colleagues attend a show with a mind reader named Barry. They are skeptics for sure. Barry is being investigated because Ali was asked by a mother to look into her son’s suicide. This son’s death is not the only one in these pages and one of the murders strikes quite close to home.
I was delighted to again spend time with the characters in the present as well. These include Ali’s son, Finn, and all of her colleagues. One of these coworkers, Dina, has a budding romance with a detective in the story.
Be sure to look at the cover of this novel. You will see some images that are relevant to the story there.
I highly recommend this title. I am eager for the third in the series which will come out in England in February 2027. I look forward to it being issued here in the U.S. as well.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Viking Penguin for this title. All thoughts are my own.
Pub date: 17 November 2026
320 pages
Mystery
Five stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Post first published on 26 October 2026
Description:
from the publisher
The second mystery following Ali Dawson, the brilliant time-traveling detective, on her newest foray into Victorian London
Detective Ali Dawson leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel back in time to solve them. But ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, Ali and her team have been forbidden from time travel.
At a loss, Ali dives into a present-day case – an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. Ali believes the death is linked to a bad-news psychic medium, Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Suspicious, Ali attends one of Power’s shows, where he claims to be in contact with none other than Jones.
Minor trouble closer to home inspires Ali to sneak back in time just long enough to prevent misfortune. Her plan backfires, and she finds herself once again in Victorian London, where she reencounters Jones, as well as the darkly mysterious Cain Templeton, with whom Ali has unfinished business from her previous visit to the nineteenth century . . .
When she spies Barry Power lurking in the past, Ali knows she’s onto something. But with a potential murderer operating in multiple centuries, how on earth is she supposed to protect everyone at risk?
It’s a different time. It’s a dangerous time. It’s the killing time.
From the Publisher:
Editorial Reviews
Review
Advance praise for The Killing Time
“Warm and engaging characters and a wildly brilliant story wittily told; I loved this book.”
—Ann Cleeves, New York Times bestselling author of the Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez series
“Here’s a paradox: a thriller that is full of zest and joy.”
—Nicci French, international bestselling author of The Last Days of Kira Mullan
“[An] entertaining sequel to The Frozen People . . . Delicious subplots . . . brisk pacing, cleverly managed time travel, and fascinating bits of historical detail win the day. Fans of the first novel will be delighted by this one. ”
—Publishers Weekly
“Simply astonishing.”
—Booklist (starred review)
