A Twist in Time

McElwain’s lackluster sequel to 2016’s A Murder in Time finds 26-year-old FBI profiler Kendra Donovan still stuck in 1815 Britain, to which she was transported from 2015 America via an unexplained “wormhole” in time. Longing to return to her own era and irritated by Regency mores, Kendra finds an outlet for her restlessness when Lady Cordelia Dover is stabbed to death in her London townhouse. The onetime mistress of Alexander Morgan, the Marquis of Sutcliffe, Cordelia was a widow whose dramatic sexual liaisons offer motives aplenty for her murder. Kendra, who has begun her own love affair with Alec, hopes to save him from being charged with the crime. Kendra joins with his uncle, her patron the Duke of Aldridge, to investigate the victim’s resentful stepson, the married lover whose family she humiliated, and a violent figure from her hidden past. Copious period jargon and explanations notwithstanding, the depiction of Regency actions and attitudes is consistently anachronistic, and McElwain explores neither the time travel aspects nor the emotions of the story in satisfying depth. [em]Agent: Jill Grosjean, Jill Grosjean Literary Agency. (Apr.) [/em]