Past Time
Past Time is the second in Michael Llewellyn’s time travel trilogy and continues the adventures of Madeleine “Maddy” St. Jacques, a New Orleans librarian with a passion for history and amateur sleuthing. Her older paramour and partner in time crime is Henri Chabrol, a Tulane University professor with access to parallel universes via the secretive August Ones. In the first book, Still Time, Madeleine was hurtled back to 1861 New Orleans, a world of black masters, white slaves, glamorous courtesans of color and assorted shady souls out to thwart her mission. In Past Time, she travels to Tsarist Russia where she is thrust into the midst of a power struggle for control of the largest—and most unstable—empire on earth. Once again Madeleine struggles to learn why she was sent back in time and how she might keep history on course. The truth eventually comes, but at a terrible price.
From the back cover:
The August Ones are back! Those enigmatic entities manipulating age-old time corridors have once again propelled New Orleans librarian Madeleine St. Jacques into the past. This time her destination is Russia circa 1914, an empire ruled by Tsar Nicholas II and the fabled Romanov dynasty. Arriving in frozen, wintry St. Petersburg, Madeleine finds herself amid grand dukes and duchesses, gypsies and imperial guardsmen, ferocious revolutionaries and corrupt holy men, each with a disparate stake in a doomed nation hurtling toward apocalypse.
“If those superstitious fools learn you’re a time traveler, they’ll tear you to pieces!”
As the guest of Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, Madeleine is seduced by the opulent Romanov world of endless balls, glittering soirees and oceans of vodka while the furtive monster of revolution lurks just outside the palace doors. Her royal idyll is imperiled when she discovers the most imminent threat to the dynasty lies within the family itself and wonders if it’s her destiny to stop it before it’s Past Time.
(83,000 words; available as ebook and print)
“This is the second of Llewellyn’s time travel novels and his ability not only to convince the reader to ‘buy into’ the idea of hurtling back in time works brilliantly, the added bonus of this book is that the ride is chock full of historical details and descriptions of Tsarist St. Petersburg that are both eye-opening and satisfying. I know very little about this historical period and yet, by the end of the book–which has some great plot twists and turns, by the way–I better understood the violent overthrow of the Romanovs as well as had compassion for both sides of this major 20th century event. This book has three important qualities for readers who don’t want just fluff to pass the time: yes, it’s definitely fast-paced and a page-turner; it’s full of insights only a writer who knows his stuff could produce on the page in a fashion that informs without being obvious about it; and it is simply a lot of fun to read.” —Ciji Ware, author of That Winter in Venice
“The characters of Past Time are very well-drawn and completely believable in the period of Tsarist Russia, circa 1914. I also appreciated the mysteriously referred mechanism of the time shifts and the allusions to a mystic race of time keepers. The time traveler, Madeleine, shows the proper fear of blurting out information that she should keep quiet, but I enjoyed the little bits of modern speech she spills into the Imperial Russian household. Well-paced, satisfying ending, and a lot of fun to read.” –Richard Sutton, author of The Red Gate
“Past Time is the second of Michael Llewellyn’s time travel series. I really enjoyed the first, but I loved this one. The story takes the time-traveling heroine back to 1914 Russia. The author paints such a vivid portrayal of St. Petersburg in that fateful year that you easily visualize each aspect of the story. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series. This is a wonderful read and I recommend it most highly.” –Gregory Lindeblom, author/photographer, Masculine Beauty
