Time bending in the wrong place at the wrong time

I'd seen Gillian McAllister's books at my local library, but her 2022 novel is the first one I've read. McAllister is a British author of seven bestselling novels to date, several of which have been optioned for film and television. She has a degree in English from the University of Birmingham and a law degree, and previously worked as a solicitor before switching to writing full time.

Update: I've since read a second McAllister book, Just another missing person. 

Wrong place wrong time | Published May 2022 | Read March 2024

As you might expect from the title, Wrong place wrong time is a time-bending story. It begins in the present on the evening of Halloween, when Jen spots her 18-year-old son, Todd, from the window of their home, stabbing a total stranger to death. This is a completely out of character act for Todd, and Jen has no idea who the victim is, how he is connected to Todd, or why her son stabbed him.

Jen finally falls asleep after Todd is arrested as the weight of the evening's events hit her. When she wakes up the next morning, she realises that it is the day BEFORE the murder. As this awful thing is yet to happen, Jen has the chance to stop it.

The novel continues to step back in time as each morning when Jen wakes up, she finds herself further into the past. These time jumps take Jen to days that are pivotal to her understanding of her life, the people in her world, and the terrible events of Halloween night. Jen tries to make sense of these time jumps to prevent the killing and Todd's eventual arrest and incarceration.

I quickly became engrossed in the story even though time travel isn't usually my thing as I find it confusing. The premise for the story is super interesting and I found Gillian McAllister's writing worked for me (although with some style and grammatical issues). I rolled with the development of the plot. I've seen other reviewers comment on the excessive showing and overuse of character explanations (that Jen's husband has a dry sense of humour and is anti-establishment is repeatedly mentioned). I get it, but those criticisms didn't have too much of an effect of my reading journey.

The novel builds in suspense as Jen learns new things during each time jump. It wasn't the time travel that I had to keep up with, but all the new information that I had to process to make sense of what was going on. Clever!

I ploughed through Wrong place wrong time but it is a demanding read. It's basically a crime being solved in reverse, and that makes for fascinating reading. The book is not about the time loop as such, although this idea is intelligently explored when Jen seeks out an academic who has written a thesis on the topic. Gillian McAllister uses the time loop as the anchor for the reverse investigation and a smart, unique device for presenting the story.

If you can accept the concept and run with it without asking too many questions, then you'll enjoy Wrong place wrong time. I certainly did. The story is cleverly structured, slowly revealing information until the reader is given the full picture. McAllister avoids an overwrought ending and ties everything up at the end in a believable way (if you forget about the mad time travel thing, that is 😜). The book is imaginative and complex. If it's an indication of McAllister's work, I'm keen to seek out her other books.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Update: Here's my review of the second McAllister book I have read, Just another missing person.