I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas. Thanks to Blake at Head of Zeus for inviting me to join the tour, Florence for doing the organising and Kate for my personally inscribed proof copy of her book. Check out the tour banner at the bottom of this post to see the other great book bloggers taking part in the tour.
Watch the book trailer for The Psychology of Time Travel here
About the Book
1967: Four female scientists invent a time-travel machine. They are on the cusp of fame: the pioneers who opened the world to new possibilities. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril.
2017: Ruby knows her beloved Granny Bee was a pioneer, but they never talk about the past. Though time travel is now big business, Bee has never been part of it. Then they receive a message from the future–a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady.
2018: When Odette discovered the body, she went into shock. Blood everywhere, bullet wounds, flesh. But when the inquest fails to answer any of her questions, Odette is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?
Format: Hardcover, ebook (368 pp.) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 9th August 2018 Genre: Literary Fiction, Mystery
Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme
Find The Psychology of Time Travel on Goodreads
My Review
At one point in the novel, one of the characters observes that a characteristic of more experienced time travellers is that they generally have ‘a weird hippocampus’. Having now read the book, I feel I can definitely identify with this – and goodness knows what the author’s hippocampus looks like! As it happens, during the time I was reading the book I had to undergo an MRI brain scan. In my imagination, the radiographer is now looking at the scan and thinking, WTF…
There are so many intersecting story lines and switches of time period in The Psychology of Time Travel that I can’t imagine how the author kept track of everything. I picture her surrounded by post-it notes, whiteboards, flowcharts… The Psychology of Time Travel is definitely a contender for a ‘read-in-one-sitting’ book. Once you pick it up, you may just decide to cancel all your plans for that morning, afternoon or evening. In fact, to save you the trouble of making the decision, I took a quick trip to the future myself and I can reassure you that reading the book will turn out to be much more satisfying that what you intended doing anyway. And, by the way, Jaroslav says ‘Hi’. Oh, I forget, you haven’t met him yet, have you? Plus that new recipe you were planning to try later? Don’t bother; it doesn’t work out too well.
I said earlier that my proof copy was personally inscribed by the author (see picture). I had the uncanny sense when I finished the book that if I turned back to that page it would now read ‘Glad you enjoyed it!’.
A sort of modern day version, for grown-ups, of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights, Kate Mascarenhas’ debut novel is a clever, funny, exhilarating, mind-bending mystery that deserves all the rave reviews it is getting. This is an author to look out for in the future. (See what I did there?)
I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus, in return for an honest and unbiased review.
In three words: Original, imaginative, compelling
Try something similar…Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
About the Author
Kate Mascarenhas is a half-Irish, half-Seychellois midlander. She is a qualified child psychologist, dabbling in doll-making and bookbinding in her free time. She lives with her husband in a small terraced house, which she is slowly filling with Sindy dolls. The Psychology of Time Travel is her first novel.
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