Past Time — Michael Llewellyn

Michael Llewellyn is the author of nineteen published novels in multiple genres including historical fiction and mystery. Past Time is the second in his time travel series and continues 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 where she is thrust into the midst of a power struggle for control of the largest-and most unstable-empire on earth. Once again Madeleine struggles to learn why she was sent back in time and how she might keep history on course. The truth eventually comes, but at a terrible price. From the back cover: The August Ones are back Those enigmatic entities manipulating age-old time corridors have once again propelled New Orleans librarian Madeleine St. Jacques into the past. This time her destination is Russia circa 1914, an empire ruled by Tsar Nicholas II and the fabled Romanov dynasty. Arriving in frozen, wintry St. Petersburg, Madeleine finds herself amid grand dukes and duchesses, gypsies and imperial guardsmen, ferocious revolutionaries and corrupt holy men, each with a disparate stake in a doomed nation hurtling toward apocalypse. "If those superstitious fools learn you're a time traveler, they'll tear you to pieces " As the guest of Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, Madeleine is seduced by the opulent Romanov world of endless balls, glittering soirees and oceans of vodka while the furtive monster of revolution lurks just outside the palace doors. Her royal idyll is imperiled when she discovers the most imminent threat to the dynasty lies within the family itself and wonders if it's her destiny to stop it before it's... PAST TIME. Reviews of the author's other books: Still Time "Still Time is a new kind of historical time-travel/mystery/thriller that delights and informs the reader. 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 of The Spoils of Avalon Communion of Sinners "Llewellyn has cooked up a savory literary paella inspired by the hidden history of California's Spanish missions and flavored with a touch of investigative journalism and the beauty of the Pacific coast. A compelling, feast of a book." -Anne Hillerman, author of Spider Woman's Daughter Creole Son "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 of A Free Man of Color Twelfth Night "Entertaining...a solid sense of life in antebellum New Orleans." -Publisher's Weekly "Will be the gilded bean in your king cake." -New Orleans Times-Picayune