Out of Time — Michael Llewellyn

From the back cover: "You need not be frightened, my dear. I'm frightened enough for both of us " Never second-guess the August Ones Transported from New Orleans to 1820's Haiti, as the guest of King Henry I, Madeleine St. Jacques is dazzled by his opulent palace and a fanciful court with a Duke and Duchess of Marmelade and Royal Pages called Bonbons. Slaves only a generation ago, these extravagantly costumed courtiers dance the minuet and worship in a Catholic Cathedral while voodoo ceremonies flourish and the mountains throb with the drums of Africa. Madeleine soon discovers ominous forces at work in a fairytale kingdom as fragile as it is exotic. Consumed with power and determined to make Europe respect his tiny island nation, King Henry builds on a Pharaonic scale-grand palaces, sugar plantations, new harbors and the largest fortress in the New World- at a terrible cost of human lives. When his obsessions morph into madness and her world careens toward chaos, Madeleine fears she'll never learn why she's been sent back and becomes desperate to return home before running OUT OF TIME. Out of Time is the third in Michael Llewellyn's time travel series, continuing the adventures of Madeleine "Maddy" St. Jacques, a New Orleans librarian with a passion for history and amateur sleuthing. Her older paramour and partner in time crime is Henri Chabrol, a Tulane University professor with access to parallel universes via the secretive August Ones. In the first book, Still Time, Madeleine was hurtled back to 1861 New Orleans, a world of black masters, white slaves, glamorous courtesans of color and assorted shady souls out to thwart her mission. In Past Time, she travels to Tsarist Russia and thrust into a power struggle for control of the largest-and most unstable-empire on earth. Reviews of Michael Llewellyn's other books: "The characters of Past Time are superbly drawn and completely believable in the period of Tsarist Russia, circa 1914. I also appreciated the mysteriously referred mechanism of the time shifts and the allusions to a mystic race of time keepers. The time traveler, Madeleine, shows the proper fear of blurting out information that she should keep quiet, but I enjoyed the little bits of modern speech she spills into the Imperial Russian household. Well-paced, satisfying ending, and a lot of fun to read." -Richard Sutton, author of The Red Gate "Still Time is a new kind of historical time-travel/mystery/thriller that delights and informs. Steeped in New Orleans past and present, Llewellyn creates a steamy, sultry, romantic atmosphere that will have you craving gumbo and beignets. Heroine Madeleine St. Jacques transforms quite satisfyingly from quiet librarian to cunning, action-oriented belle-of-the-ball once she is singled out by transcendent 'forces' to fulfill a critical mission in the past. Llewellyn's history is accurate and illuminating, especially in regard to the looming Civil War, which will make historical fiction readers happy, and his time-travel devices are innovative and clever, so time-slip fans will appreciate that as well." -Mary F. Burns, author, The Spoils of Avalon "For the reader who likes a good historical novel, The Goat Castle Murder is a must. For the reader who likes an intricate whodunit, this is also a must. For the reader who likes both, this is a gift." -Gene Farrington, author, The Blue Heron "Creole Son, a novel of Degas in New Orleans, is dazzling With skill and sensitivity, Llewellyn captures the interaction of art and violence, ugliness and beauty, the transition of an artist, a man and a world." -Barbara Hambly, author, A Free Man of Color