2016; 399 pages. Book 7 (out of 14) in the series “The Chronicles of St. Mary’s”. New Author? : No. Genres: Time Travel; Humorous Fantasy; Historical
Fiction. Overall Rating: 9*/10.
Chief Operations Officer “Max” Maxwell is
leaving St. Mary’s!! Well, it’s an
amiable parting, and there’s a good reason for it. Max is going to have a baby quite soon.
She’s already on the “restricted list” when it comes to St. Mary’s primary function: time-traveling
into the past to record historically important events. Max is still allowed to chrono-hop, but she’s
not allowed to go on any mission that might involve warfare or violence of any kind. It’s for the baby’s
well-being.
Max understands the
restriction, but it means the only assignments she gets are boring ones. Such as her latest one: going to watch the
coronation of some British king who’s in a scandalous marriage. Ho.
Hum.
But Max has a long history (pun intended) of having the time-jumps to
which she’s assigned turning into dangerous adventures with harrowing escapes. And there’s no reason to think that’s going
to change just because an unborn child is coming along for the ride.
What’s To Like...
Lies, Damned Lies,
and History is the seventh book in Jodi Taylor’s excellent and exciting 14-book
time-travel series, The Chronicles of St. Mary’s, where inept historians are
the heroes is spite of their efforts. Max is the main protagonist,
and while Trouble usually finds her as she’s jaunting around the time-space
continuum, here she willingly and knowingly creates her own bad mojo, and takes
several coworkers down with her.
Once again, Jodi Taylor
conjures up all sorts of time-jumps for our historians. There are nine chrono-excursions here, with Max
being involved in eight of those, albeit quite unwillingly in one of them. Almost all of the destinations here are
within the borders of Great Britain, which is a bit unusual; normally one or two of the
time-jumps are to places beyond the English isles.
The story is written in the first-person POV, Max’s, which is true for the entire series. I love the attention to detail in Jodi Taylor's tales. It may sound trite, but I really can envision the historical settings presented in these books. It’s also a plus that the text in these books sparkles with plenty of wit and a bit of snarkiness, yet also oozes with interpersonal tension.
It's also neat that none of the characters in
this series are completely black or white.
Max knows she’s doing something wrong and accepts the inevitable
consequences. Conversely, the "black hats" Time Police may be
ruthless in dealing with those who alter the timeline in any way, but theirs is
a dirty job that someone has to do.
The book is written in
English, not American. That leads to
some odd spellings and punctuation, but you’re also rewarded with a bunch of quaint British expressions, such as “knees-up”, “a bit of a kick around”, “cack-handed pillock”, “shame about the gob”,
“complete girl’s blouse”, “banging on
about me”, and my personal favorite “and
Bob’s your uncle”. By comparison, our American “dialect” is sadly
lacking in such colorful idioms. And we
won’t even mention the esoteric Latin-sounding expression “Illegitimi non carborundum”. Yeah, you’ll want to google that one.
The ending is reasonably
exciting and includes a tension-filled race against time as well as a nifty plot
twist that both Max and I never saw coming.
Everything works out for the good guys; although it can be said that
everything pretty much works out for the bad guys too. I like those kind of endings.
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 5,863 ratings
and 496 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.42*/5,
based on 9,919
ratings and 642 reviews.
Excerpts...
“I think we’ve done everything we can,
don’t you?” he said.
I nodded.
“Yes, I think so.”
“As I always say – whatever the task you’re
about to undertake, you should never neglect the basics. Doesn’t matter what you call it – staff work,
advance planning, spadework, foreplay – a little effort at the beginning always
pays dividends in the end.”
“Does Helen know you refer to your romantic
interludes as spadework?”
He looked over his shoulder. “You’re not going to tell her, are you?” (pg. 127)
“Dr. Maxwell. Advise us of your location.”
The words bounced off the valley
walls. I was willing to bet if there
ever had been anyone in the village below they weren’t there now. They probably thought their gods were
speaking to them. It’s interesting to
think that every major religion that claims to have heard the voice of their
god might well have heard nothing more than the Time Police ordering some
unfortunate to surrender at once, or be zapped with one of their sonic
thingies. I took a moment to wonder
whether they could actually be responsible for the parting of the Red Sea, told
myself not to be so bloody stupid, and staggered to my feet. (pg. 380)
Kewlest New Word ...
Juggins (n.) : one easily victimized; a
simpleton. (British;
informal)
Never again would I
tease Roberts about his bum-fluff. (pg.
161)
There’s just a scant amount of
cussing in Lies, Damned Lies, and History. I counted only 8 instances in the first quarter of the book, the most common one referencing an excretory product. Later on, one f-bomb appeared, as well as an
informal reference to a female mammary organ.
I only just two typos: th/the and Halcombw/Halcombe,
and one missing close-quotation mark.
Kudos to the editor(s) for a job well done.
That’s all the nitpicking I can come up with.
I found Lies, Damned Lies,
and History to be another fine effort in this series. I’ve been reading the books in order, and
have yet to be disappointed in any of them.
They are all equal parts time-travel, historical fiction, and wry
British humour, with hints of romance and save-the-world adventure blended in. That’s a great recipe for a bestselling series.
9 Stars. I should mention that Jodi Taylor has at least three other series for your reading pleasure: The Time Police (5 books), Frogmorton Farm (4 books), and Elizabeth Cage (3 books). I’ve snagged a couple of e-books from two of these series, but haven’t read any of them, mostly because I’m hooked on this St. Mary’s series. That’s a first-world problem, I admit, but a pleasant one to have.
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