Clever plot, infused with gentle humour that entertained but lacked the personal angst and historical set-pieces that make the series sparkle.

The strong point in this tenth episode of St. Mary's is the plot. Max finally puts together a cunning plan to capture her arch-enemy, Ronan and has to leave St. Mary's for a secondment to the Time Police to put it into action. I didn't guess how this would work and I certainly didn't see the end coming.

With Max moving to the Time Police, the focus moves from History to Time. I thought this was handled well, especially in the way the collapse of the timeline and the plan to try and fix it were described, but I found myself missing the historical set-pieces: the prep, the how-will-St.-Mary's-mess-it-up-this-time suspense and the wow-it-feels-like-I'm-there evocation of events.

The book keeps that distinctive mix of subversive humour and deep devotion to duty against all odds that, for me, defines St. Marys and it was what I enjoyed most about this book. I'm just happy to have the opportunity to spend more time in Max's company.

In the past few books, being in Max's company has been a fairly emotionally exhausting experience, given all the things that have happened to her. This time, although Max was almost constantly at risk of being killed, I never really felt more than curiosity about how she would get out of trouble this time.

It was an entertaining read with a plot that tied up a lot of loose ends and revisited old actions in new and clever ways but didn't quite get there for me in terms of feeling real threat.

Still, I'll be there for book eleven whenever Jodi Taylor produces it.

(that's not a rabbit)

I thought this was only a 3 book series!

"Then Dr. Bairstow, his voice harsh with urgency said, 'Leon. Get out. They're here. RUN!'

How am I supposed to resist that last line!

Sucked into another one.

LOL

Off to Amazon to see if I have enough gift card money left.

This was a really nice short read, for fans of the series.

It was all in the story - a bit of heartbreak for the realism in the christmas past.

And a bit of a christmas miracle :)

Another short to accompany the main St Mary’s series. While it’s perfectly possibly to follow the series without reading the short stories, I would certainly recommend them as it provides you with some extra adventures and postpones the inevitable moment where you’ll have to return to the normal, non-time traveling world.

Expect everything you’ve come to expect from the series. Now set in Roman times with Caesar (the one that gave it the name) and Cleopatra, because when you install your mistress in your wife’s house, this of course is asking for problems.

The only remark I have is that I would not read it as #3.5. Without going into spoilers, book three ends on quite an important moment with quite the cliff-hanger, and book four opens there, so personally, I would recommend to read it before starting A Second Time, as it probably takes place somewhere during the events of that book.

Nice little Christmas tale of St. Mary's. Nicely done.


(Audible freebie)