Niall Boyce

Perhaps my brain just can't process complicated plots at the moment, but this is the second novel in a row for me where nothing made sense. The first few chapters, introducing 'chronic' (time) detective Veronica Britton, were promising. I liked the historical angle with a steampunk vibe, even though I could never quite get the time periods straight. Then about three different subplots kicked off, which could have done with being expanded in separate novels, and I completely lost the thread of what was happening. Everything came together in the end, in the cyclical fashion of time travel fiction, but by that point I was only interested in reaching the end. Instead of trying to emulate the 'breathless' (ie, melodramatic) style of Wilkie Collins, as he stated in one interview, Boyce would have done better trying to develop his characters to the same strength of his world-building, rather than launching into the action and expecting his readers to care enough to keep pace.… (altro)