A SCI-FI MYSTERY FROM MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER JASPER T. SCOTTHe invented a machine to take people to the futureThen he was accused of murder, but he can’t remember killing anyone.Billionaire genius Byron Gaines is accused of murdering his wife and her lover, but he swears he didn’t do it. This couldn’t have come at a worse moment: he is so close to a breakthrough in his research. He’s about to … breakthrough in his research. He’s about to invent a device that will change the world forever. The irony is, if only he had a little more time, he’d be able to make his legal problems disappear–along with himself.
Travel to the near future with unforgettable characters and evocative depictions of imminent technologies. See how society could evolve in both utopian and dystopian ways. Twists abound in this unpredictable read. A perfect novel for fans of Michael Crichton, Blake Crouch, Matthew Mather, and AG Riddle.
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Terrific concept and great characters. This story has lots of plot twists, leaving the reader wondering what’s going to happen right up to the end.
What an appealing book description! It started out well, the time machine is exciting, and while I’m not an expert, the science sounded believable. The writing is decent, but it didn’t take long for me to dislike the main protagonist Byron Gaines, and this is never a good sign. Byron is an arrogant genius tech billionaire (worth 37 billions, let’s not forget this part) and I was glad he got the wife he deserved; he certainly didn’t have my pity.
And then, oh my goodness, the whole thing started quickly to completely fall apart at 8%, I struggled until I stopped at 14%, end of Part 1. The next day, I thought I’d give it another shot, and finally called it quits at 16%, it showed no signs of improvement; it still felt unbearably juvenile. Jasper T. Scott should have read a couple of legal thrillers – John Grisham definitely comes to mind – or even watched subpar TV series, even soap operas before writing this book. The author doesn’t seem to have the foggiest notion of legal or police procedures regarding a murder case; it’s truly appalling. I was dismayed to see that this is not the author’s first mystery…
All the evidence is purely circumstantial and the suspect – Byron – is interrogated by the police while obviously under the influence. When I stopped reading, there had been no talk of looking at DNA evidence, no blood tests for alcohol or drugs, seemingly no investigation was conducted. Byron confessed to a crime he didn’t remember, and that was that. A billionaire tech genius. The author also committed what I consider an unforgivable litetary crime: having his protagonist behave entirely out of character. Byron, as we saw, is a tech genius, arrogant and commanding, a tough man prone to violent outbursts, and let’s not forget worth 37 billion dollars. Now, when taken into custody and interrogated by the police, he behaves like a four year-old. It’s not as if he were a reclusive, nerdy, meek, absent-minded professor type. If that were the case, it might – *might* – have been slightly more believable. Only slightly, because the handling of the case is so farfetched, the mind boggles.
I’ll stop here; suffice it to say that I found the whole plot laughable. Or I might have found it laughable had my intelligence not been so outrageously insulted. This is, without a doubt, one of the worst so-called murder mysteries I have ever read, and quite possibly the worst. Whatever happens afterwards, I don’t care. The whole ridiculous legal ordeal will surely be dissected over and over, and going through that preposterous legal charade once was already one time too many. I would have liked to see how the time machine worked, but I can’t stomach any more of the dismal murder plot. Here, I’m speculating because I don’t know, I didn’t get that far, but I hope Byron’s lawyer was in on it, otherwise the plot is even more … preposterous (yes, there’s that word again).
Avoid this book if you are a fan of murder mysteries, and if you are even only minimally familiar with the law. If you don’t mind an implausible and illogical scenario, an unlikable character whose behaviour changes according to the author’s whims, by all means, have a go at it. I prefer to think that Byron Gaines, the unpleasant, arrogant billionaire tech genius who acts like a toddler when accused of a crime, got lost in the ether and that his wife, best friend, and trusted lawyer laughed all the way to the bank.
Fans of Blake Crouch and Michael Crichton, don’t be fooled by the blurb, stay away from this mess.
This is a fast paced, extremely well written, stand-alone, hard sci-fi story. Byron, a super wealthy, intense and driven genius, invents a machine that can travel to the future. In a macabre plot to steal this technology, Byron is framed for murder. This amazing tale takes off from there with well-thought out and realistic futures and non-stop twisting and turning energy. Jasper Scott’s mental agility and technical knowledge is amazing. Bravo!