[Blurb goes here]

Contrary to what other reviews say about this book, I wouldn't dare compare "Lost in Time" to Michael Crichton's novels. Don't get me wrong, this one stands all on its own, but it is no Crichton book...now, on to the story...

Sam, a scientist working for Absolom, lost his wife a year earlier. He has been trying hard to hold his household together, juggling both family and work. On the anniversary of his wife's demise, he takes both his teenage kids to the cemetery, to visit her grave. While there, he gets arrested for the murder of Nora, a woman he's romantically involved with, and one of Absolom's six: the original founders of the company (more on that later). As evidence piles up, Sam realizes that, whoever is behind her fellow scientist's death, is one step ahead: forcing him to confess to the murder, unless he wants evidence against his daughter to come to light.

Penalty for the murder, to be sent back in time to the Triassic period, in an alternate timeline. All due to Absolom's technology. Intended as a shipping company, using quantum entanglement to accomplish the feat, Absolom only succeeds in sending things to a distant past, creating a new "death" penalty, thus coining the phrase "A fate worse than Absolom." Crime rates dropping considerably, after the world's governments adopt the technology, to get rid of the worst elements human kind has to offer.

Sam has no other choice but to accept his undeserved punishment, with only one thing in mind: to survive. His team, Absolom's six, will stop at nothing to try, and bring him back. Meanwhile, Adeline, Sam's nineteen year old daughter, is hell bent on finding Nora's killer. Her suspects: the scientists working along side her now gone father.

A.G. Riddle carefully weaves a time traveling murder mystery. Jumping from one timeline to the other, closely following Sam and Adeline. Both in peril: one from the creatures that roamed the Earth, and the other, from the people that used to work by her father's side.

The book picks up speed from the start, living you with little to no time to prepare for the thrill ride. As suspects began to surface, and are also discarded, you'll be trying to solve the murder along side Adeline, all the while realizing something that she has little knowledge of: time is an important factor.

Now on to the second part of the book. Circumstances will throw you back to the near past, the time where it all really started. How Absolom, through an investment firm, was founded. How Absolom's six created the technology behind it, in a linear story spanning some twenty years or so. This second part is not action packed, and slows down the initial rhythm of the book, but is still really interesting, and will keep you reading to the very end.

While I truly enjoyed this read, and I wholeheartedly recommend it, the last few pages (after all questions have been answered,) turn into...I don't know, some sort of absurd and seemingly pointless crusade. Something that to me felt unnecessary...and a bit ludicrous. Don't let that stop you, this is a fun and exciting read.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Really enjoyable and intricate time travel book. Unique, with well developed characters with a plot that made my head spin. Absolutely loved the twists in this story that could never have been predicted

Sam Anderson is a widowed father raising two children in Absolom City. On the third anniversary of his wife’s death, Sam and his daughter, Adeline, are accused of murdering Sam’s colleague and lover, Nora. As the evidence mounts, Sam soon realizes he and Adeline are certainly going to be convicted. In an attempt to save his daughter, Sam confesses to the murder. Yet this is the future, and in the future the world’s worst criminals aren’t sent to prison, they’re sent through the Absolom machine. This machine will send Sam back in time to the Triassic period, the era of dinosaurs. All in all it is a terrifying death sentence, a punishment with too many unknowns. Whilst Sam prepares for his fate, his daughter Adeline refuses to accept it. As the novel progresses Adeline plunges into an all consuming quest to prove her father’s innocence, to discover a way to bring him back. Everyone around her is a suspect, everyone holds secrets, and what Adeline eventually uncovers changes everything.

It may seem far-fetched or erring on the ridiculous side to have the most dangerous criminals sent back to the time of dinosaurs but looking more deeply, Absolom revolutionized the world, and crime rates instantly plummeted. I mean, would you want to be sent to prison or would you rather face your chances of surviving with the world’s ancient, ferocious and deadly animals?

“Adeline had always heard the saying that the devil you know
is better than the one you don't. That's what Absolom was to the world: a new devil.”

Honestly, when Sam is sent through the Absolom, that’s when the book really kicks off for me and the pages literally flew by. The moment Sam awakens in the Triassic period, he’s stranded and his chances of survival look slim indeed. That’s when we begin our duel narrative as Riddle switches each chapter to alternate between Adeline, who investigates the murder mystery element and Sam who delivers us a survival story. There are scenes of Sam foraging for food, seeking shelter, building a fire and using every ounce of his wits to stay alive. My little nerdy heart loved looking up pictures of each dinosaur he encountered and I held my breath each time one chased him. Throughout all this Sam’s entire driving force is seeing Ryan and Adeline again, his anchor within the storm. Yet Riddle doesn’t make this easy for our Sam, and the further he roams into Pangea, the more it seems he will never survive long enough to return to his own time.

Not that events are any easier for Adeline either. The deeper her investigation reaches, the more threatening and dangerous her life becomes. Each one of the inventors of Absolom hide secrets, they’re all suspicious in their own way, and Riddle leads us down many twisted roads involving each one of them. However Adeline is the one character who evolves the most in this novel, from a sullen teenager to a woman responsible for rescuing her father, taking care of her brother and also keeping herself safe, she travels an exceptionally emotional journey.

My favorite aspect of Lost in Time is the way Riddle cleverly portrays the threads of time. Through both characters we see how time can affect so much of our lives without us even realizing; the time we waste, the time we long to go back to, hold on to, and the time we desperately want to change. From the author’s note I learned that themes such as grief, parenthood and regret within the novel come directly from the author’s personal life experiences and you can truly see that through the raw emotions present throughout many scenes.

“That was the way of the world, he thought; you give it your all; sometimes it's enough, sometimes it's not, and sometimes, the tide carries you in.”

At the end, Riddle drops a completely mind blowing twist and changes the perspective of the entire novel. Lost in Time is easy to devour in one sitting, it’s easy to be immersed into this twisty time travel tale, and before you know it, you too lose track of time.

A time travelling thriller with an unusual premise. Fans of Michael Crichton will enjoy this novel but I did not enjoy it and failed to finish.

Lost In Time is a twisty time-travel whodunnit-murder-mystery rescue-adventure story. And if that wasn’t enough, there are also dinosaurs thrown in for good measure! So much is going on in this book, you could easily feel lost, but the magic of this story is that, somehow, it all comes together — disparate things which shouldn’t work feel like they belong with one another. So instead of scratching your head, you’ll be biting your nails and pumping your fist. And the fact it manages to pull off all these things is truly impressive.

If you’re a fan of stories like Here And Now And Then by Mike Chen, or any Michael Crichton sci-fi thriller, then you’ll love Lost In Time. It’s got a similar vibe, where all the sci-fi trappings are less important than the characters, and what’s going on between them is where the real intrigue of the story lies. The pace is gripping, and the scientific flourishes are intoxicating. But a strong focus on character doesn’t mean that the plot suffers. The plot of this book is so intricately woven, it’s an absolute triumph. What lands hardest is the father/daughter relationship. Because at the end of the day, this is a book about family.

The characters are easy to root for. Sam is a scientist widower who’s trying to move on from his grief. Adeline is a daughter who can’t accept her father’s decisions. The struggles of each character feel organic and there’s a naturalness about their relationship that endears you to them immediately. So when they become the obvious suspects in a locked-room mystery, and Sam admits to a murder he didn’t commit in order to save Adeline, you feel the strain between them. You sense their desperation as they’re separated by millions of years and a whole other dimension, and you really crave for them to be reunited.

The reason they’re separated by entire universes is due to the Absalom machine — something which Sam helped to build. It sends prisoners back in time, and plonks them in a parallel dimension to fend for themselves. Crime is virtually eliminated because, let’s face it, is any crime really worth being expelled from our universe to fend against dinosaurs for? Convicted of murder, Sam is sent back to the Triassic period, and it’s up to Adeline to figure out the impossible — find a way to save her father.

In terms of action, there isn’t as much as I was expecting. Do I wish there was more dinosaur action? Sure. But that’s not really the focus of the book. And the twists that unfold as Adeline tries to come up with a way to save her Dad are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a masterclass of misdirection. I absolutely loved the places where this story went. There’s one rug-pull moment in particularly that is so delicious, it should get a Michelin star. So it might not meet your dinosaur-on-dinosaur expectations, but it wildly exceeds anything you can imagine in terms of twisting loops and surprising reveals, and the solution to the mystery of the book is just sublime. If you look at this book as a puzzle, then the way the pieces fit together are a thing of beauty, and it’s very, very satisfying to solve.

The chapters are short, and the switches between perspectives allow for some nice comparisons as both Sam and Adeline learn about themselves as much as what’s really going on. This makes it a real page-turner. It’s a compulsive and compelling read.

Come for the dinosaurs. Stay for the tender reflections on what it means to be a father and a daughter. Lost in Time is an unexpected delight. It’s a brilliant concept, and fans of time-twisting stories are sure to love it. Now, all I need is an Absalom machine so I can go back and read it all over again.

This book started off so well, but then about halfway through fell off for me. The beginning, the first half, was so much fun! So Sam and some friends started this company years ago not expecting to actually create anything. Only they do and now their machine, Absolom, is used to send prisoners to the past. To the time of dinosaurs more or less. The really bad ones like killers and stuff.

Now in the present someone is setting Sam up for murder and to help save his daughter he gets sent back in time. Now this part of the story was so much fun! I loved Sam in the past, I loved Adeline trying to figure out what was going on and who set up her father, all of it. Yes, it was kind of silly don't take it too seriously fun.

Then about halfway through the story changes. No more fun adventures. Instead we are going to focus on how everything came to be. How the company was started, how everyone got to where they are in the present and...it wasn't horrible, but after that first part I was disappointed. I didn't really care and would have loved more past and present storylines. So the first part I loved, and then it was just kind of meh by the end. And that ending was odd. Like I told my husband what happened and he was just like why? Why are the characters doing that?? And I honestly don't know. It was such a weird way to end the story at least to me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book

perfected a form of 21st century techno-thriller – following in the footsteps of Michael Crichton – where a strand of scientific speculation provides a launch pad for a fast-paced adventure into the unknown. This approach typically takes Riddle into apocalyptic, disaster movie territory via plague, pandemic, alien invasion, cosmic catastrophe and so forth, but Lost In Time is a little different…

This is an altogether more intimate story, woven around a young woman who loses her parents in initially tragic and then mind-bending, bizarre circumstances. There’s a murder mystery to solve, an inventive form of interdimensional travel which relies on quantum entanglement, and a solid slice of personal redemption.

Riddle’s style is to write short, snappy chapters which accelerate you through the story. He’s a master illusionist who keeps us readers fixated on the flashy action in the foreground while the plot gradually tightens in the subtext. As the title suggests, this is one of those time travel tales with plenty of potential for perplexing paradoxes, and I have to applaud his dexterity in resolving a metric tonne of continuity conundrums – without resorting to tedious chapters of exposition. I’m a sucker for any sci-fi which takes us back to reinterpret events from multiple viewpoints, so I hugely enjoyed those moments.

Some of the action sequences dragged for me, however; can’t say I was too engaged with the guys running around in the Triassic, dodging dinosaurs, earth tremors and scorching lava. But hey, this is AG Riddle so there has to be an extinction event going on somewhere.


If this sounds like the plot of a Roland Emmerich movie – well, that’s because it reads a lot like pitch for a Roland Emmerich movie. You’d be forgiven for wondering when Godzilla was going to put in an appearance. In the same vein, the characters are what we might kindly call ‘lightly sketched’ with one or two identifiable traits so you can tell them apart (and predict what their story arc will involve). But there’s not a lot of in-depth complexity to the chaps from central casting.

So I didn’t really connect with the feisty female protagonist – but that didn’t stop me yomping through the pages in the same way I’d happily eat a whole tube of Pringles without pausing to taste the flavour.

Easy to read, frothy, speculative fiction. No, it’s not serious and yes it does get a bit sentimental. But it was a refreshing change to read something with an upbeat, positive outlook – and I suspect I’ll return to this author next time I’m in the mood for something reassuringly frivolous. Just don’t over-think it.
6/10

I finished Lost in Time and within 5 minutes had ordered the beautiful Goldsboro limited edition with gorgeous colorful sprayed edges because this was a book that needed to be showcased on my bookshelves.

I read a lot of twisty time travel sci-fi but nothing prepared me for the brilliant twists of Lost in Time. This will be in my top 3 books of 2022 for sure!

In addition to being a novel about time travel, it’s also a sci-fi thriller, a suspense, and a murder mystery. If you are a fan of Crichton, you should enjoy this one.

Murderers are no longer sent to prison. They are sent back in time. 200 million years back to the time of the dinosaurs.

In Lost in Time, one of the inventors of the time travel machine confesses to the murder of the woman he loves, another of the six inventors, and is sent to the Triassic era of time where he has been exiled. In the meantime, his daughter is doing everything she can to get him back.

This was just so good and the big twist had me gasping in surprise. I’ll be checking out Riddle’s prior work of books for sure.

*Thanks so much to Head of Zeus Books and NetGalley for the advance eGalley!*

This was really hard for me to finish because the entire premise was faulty in my opinion. And because I couldn’t believe that, I just couldn’t believe in the rest of the book. The idea that a machine could send prisoners back into prehistoric times wasn’t the problem - for me it was just the question: ‘why?’
If people are terrible criminals and they get caught, they are imprisoned or executed. People either agree or disagree with that in much the same way as they would agree or disagree with sending people back into the Triassic era! I just couldn’t see why any government would agree or why it would wipe out crime, as the premise would have us believe. If the threat of being executed bor imprisoned doesn’t stop people from murdering other people then why would the threat of being sent into the past?

It was far too long and both overly complicated and overly simplified. Not for me!

Fans of Blake Crouch might enjoy this sci-fi page turner. It has nice short chapters and a quick story about time travel. The writing is a bit simplistic and the characters are a bit one dimensional , I wish there was more of Sam's story to add more adventure.

I enjoyed this story with its techy, time travel, and mystery blend. The story has a slow start but it was like a B-rated movie, once I got past the plastic characters and committed to the story, it was pretty good. The events and how they play out is really clever.

ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Pub Date: Sep 1, 2022

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Another fantastic notch under Titan Book's belt!! This fantastic novel by AG Riddle is no exception to the amazing cannon they host. Filled with intrigue and just the right lighthearted dialogue that keeps you wanting more. The amazing story told (I wont spoil anything) kept me captivated from start to finish! A crowning achievement for Riddle I think!

would 1000% recommend!

Lost in Time is a fantastic utopian science fiction novel for anyone who loves time travel and Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. Totally unputdownable and I loved the way the story unravelled and the many ethical and moral considerations of time travel.
With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been a sucker for sci-fi time travel stories, the good, bad, and ugly for over 30 years. Lost in Time goes in the good category. It doesn’t get too bogged down in the science of possibility although quantum entanglement and paradoxes are major parts of the plot.

This is really a book about relationships. They are complex and so add the element of time to them and it complicates them even more. There are so many characters with a motive for murder that it takes a while to get through the weeds to make sense of what might’ve happened. There were definitely twists and they make a lot more sense after you finish the book. I really enjoyed this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an ARC of this book.

Lost in Time was a very interesting book! I ended up enjoying it but I don't know if it will be for everyone. I think teenager me would have loved this. There were some good twists, I did feel like it could have been shorter and I was a bit sad we didn't get to spend more time with the dinos. Overall I think the concepts were great but the execution was a bit choppy and weird.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This is the sort of book that keeps you up at night. I enjoyed reading it so much that when I eventually turned off the light it was hours after my usual bedtime. The basic theme is time travel, but this book shows that the stories that can be spun out of that theme are almost without limit. One of the main threads of the story is an unexplained murder and so we have a "who done it " with temporal knobs on it. Since the story follows rules which avoid breaching causality, like all good science fiction this tale is believable. Another of the themes is personal loss and redemption which give the characters depth and engage the readers sympathy. But the best thing about it is that it is a most enjoyable read. I shall be waiting with impatience for A.G. Riddle's next book.

Interesting Concepts Yet Disjointed Storytelling. This is one of those books where there is nothing objectively wrong with it, and yet it also feels a bit disjointed. Separated into several parts, it could likely have been better separated into a trilogy, with the events of Parts 1 and 2 in one book, 3 and 4 in a second book, and 5 in a final book. Then you could expand each section out beyond what was presented in even these 400 pages (since you'd arguably need at least another couple hundred or so for a third book) and really make the effort to take a good tale into the stratosphere of being among the best in scifi. Overall the specific application of time travel here was one I hadn't seen in any form since the early 2000s era Jet Li movie The One, and even here the specific direction Riddle applies is unique in my experience and intriguing overall. Ultimately this is a good tale and well told, it just seemed like it could have been better with a different editing approach. Very much recommended.

DNF. Another book where o wonder what I am missing. Everything should have appealed - murder, science and time travel. Yet every element seemed clunky and hollow and I just didn’t really believe in the characters or the story. Not if it seemed remotely credible

It's been a while since I read a science fiction book and it's been a pleasure to read this one. Science fiction can take you anywhere and break rules. The job of the author is to make the incredible, credible and A G Riddle does that well with this book although I did struggle with some of the more technical stuff. You will NOT see the ending. And I know I'll still be thinking about this story for a while to come.

Overall, a good read and an incredible story made, er, credible.