Time to Burn - by Ellery Lloyd (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Club comes a gripping mystery about time travel tourism and the dangerous consequences which ensue when the privileged make the past their playground.

Mercurial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it's open only to the very wealthiest.

His company, Tempus Tours, has so far been approved for just one route: a journey back to London in 1941, to the days of the Blitz, allowing the super-rich to experience the awesome sights and sounds of the aerial bombardment of the capital during World War II. It's a slick operation--routes across the wartime city are meticulously plotted, guides are extensively trained, and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced.

To immortalize his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.

Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman, and knows not only that she's not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past--and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.

Phoebe must race to untangle the truth--before past and the future are rewritten.

With this inventive, propulsive and genre-bending page turner, the bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby once again delivers an enthralling tale of legacy and wealth, history and technology with a gripping mystery at its core.

Review Quotes

"This is a knockout thriller with an intriguing speculative twist. Fans of Stephen King's 11/22/63 (2011) will be turning the pages all night." -- Booklist (starred review)

"A time tourist goes rogue in this stunning sci-fi thriller from husband-and-wife duo Paul Vlitos and Collette Lyons, writing as Lloyd (The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby). . . . Well-wrought characters lend texture and emotional resonance to the intricate and diabolically clever plot. It's a triumph." -- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Lloyd (The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby), the pen name for a British husband-and-wife writing team, continues a winning streak with this pitch-perfect time-travel thriller. . . . The setting is wonderfully constructed, the pacing is fast and orderly, and the characters are well-drawn. This is a thriller blended with old-school science fiction at its best: a story rooted in current reality and fertilized with a healthy dose of dystopia. Reminiscent of Elly Griffiths's The Frozen People and anything by Michael Crichton, it's perfect beach or vacation reading." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"Time to Burn has many of the things I love about time-travel novels. These include a megalomaniacal businessman who cannot control what he has wrought, thrilling trips into bygone eras and the spectacular violation of Time Machine Rule No. 1: Do not tamper with the past. Put aside your temporal and technological cavils, and enjoy the ride." -- Sarah Lyall for The New York Times Book Review

"A clever, exciting time-travel thriller, filled with unexpected twists." -- The Guardian

"Ellery Lloyd's usual gifts for characterization and plotting are on full display." -- CrimeReads

"Fans of time-travel thrillers will enjoy this one. It's well-written, with twists and turns, and a compelling story that will keep you reading a long. A perfect late-summer novel." -- Red Carpet Crash

"Ellery Lloyd's Time to Burn is a gripping time-traveling thriller that ably navigates its many twists and turns to a deeply satisfying ending." -- Crimespree

"Time to Burn is both intellectually interesting and a crackling good story." -- Crime Fiction Lover

"If a time-traveling former cult victim with a vengeance seems like a wildly ambitious premise, then you simply don't know the plotting prowess of Ellery Lloyd. . . . Lloyd has produced a true triumph of a novel full of twists, deep moral probings, and characters you won't soon forget." -- Bookreporter.com

"Time to Burn will appeal to fans of creative premises, timely stories, and a strong sense of place." -- The Buzz Magazines

"Spellbinding." -- The Paris Insider

"Time to Burn is very much about the suppleness of time and of memory, about friendship and family, about wealth, privilege and greed. At the same time, Ellery Lloyd adroitly combines the revenge thriller and the cautionary thriller into an undeniably clever hybrid. And, as if that isn't enough, the novel is bursting with so many surprises--including its unabashedly cheeky final pages--that it's close to addictive: it's a most satisfying read." -- Anniston Star

"A smart, thrilling, and highly original novel that combines action and suspense with thought-provoking questions about history, privilege, and consequence, a story that is not only entertaining but also unsettling in the best possible way, asking readers to consider how fragile the boundary between past and present might really be." -- The Gloss Book Club

"Lloyd's gripping, thought-provoking narrative goes far beyond a clever sci-fi concept, using time travel as a lens to examine identity, consequence, and the hidden forces that shape who we become." -- firstCLUE

"What if time travel existed, but only the super-rich could afford it? That irresistible premise powers Lloyd's latest thriller, in which a documentary filmmaker witnesses a luxury historical trip end in bloodshed, before reality itself begins to shift in rather terrifying ways." -- The I Newspaper

"Lloyd bypasses the standard physics lectures of time travel to deliver an exciting, tightly plotted thriller about the arrogance of billionaires believing they can purchase and manipulate history without catastrophic consequences." -- Streamline

"The author has delivered a propulsive, genre-bending page-turner that forces us to look at the ethics of technology and the persistent gap between the "haves" and 'have-nots.' It is a chilling reminder that some parts of history should remain untouched, especially by those who only wish to use it as a backdrop for their own amusement. . . . If you are looking for a mystery thriller that challenges your perspective on history and wealth, this is one to add to your preorder list. Seriously, you are going to love this time travel mystery. So check this haunting book out when it hits store shelves!" -- Beauty Cooks Kisses

"Cleverly examines ethical issues with smartly drawn characters." -- Christian Science Monitor

"Time To Burn is the kind of page-turner that makes it hard to put down. Not only are the characters well drawn, but their motivations also pull readers further and further into the tangle. The book takes an oft-used premise and confidently goes off-script, avoiding clichés and mapping fresh territory. Cerebral, witty, and full of fun, Time to Burn--with its engaging and enjoyable prose--brings aficionados a very cool new addition to the SF genre." -- Irish Film Critic

"Ellery Lloyd crafts a mesmerizing time-hopping mystery around the question: what if time travel is possible, but only for the uber-rich? Film-maker Phoebe Hunt arrives at the tech headquarters of mysterious billionaire Inigo Frank, the man who not only cracked the secret of time travel but made it into a tourist attraction for the wealthy. Frank insists he wants an honest documentary from Phoebe, but she remains skeptical--especially when a trip to 1941 goes terribly wrong, and a real estate heiress gets stranded back in the London Blitz. As troubles mount and timelines begin to fray, Phoebe comes to realize that her own troubled past is somehow entwined with the missing time traveler--but how? Time to Burn offers twists and turns galore, a true delight to the last page!" -- Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code

"I tore through Time to Burn, a brilliantly clever tale about time travel gone wrong. Bold, convincing and beautifully told - I could not put this book down" -- Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country

"Time to Burn is ridiculously, head-spinningly clever. Brilliantly plotted, every time-travelling eventuality is answered and potential plot hole, filled. It's also a love story, a tale of atonement, and a letter to London through the ages--with the London of the Blitz, and even the Noughties, brought to cinematic glory. And I loved the final payoff! Just hugely well done." -- Sarah Vaughan, internationally bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal and Based on a True Story

"Clever, fast paced, and genuinely surprising--I stayed up way too late to finish!" -- Emma Rosenblum, bestselling author of Bad Summer People and Mean Moms

"What I love about Ellery Lloyd is that I never know what I'm going to get from one novel to the next. This was absolutely thrilling. It is mind bending and totally immersive, and takes the idea of time travel to new and exciting heights. Ingenious!" -- John Marrs, author of You Killed Me First and The Family Experiment

"Ellery Lloyd is one of my favorite writers. Time to Burn is a riveting time traveler thriller packed with rollicking action and epic imagination--and a smart, satirical heart." -- Abigail Dean, author of The Death of Us and Conspiracies