About Time

Name: About Time
Author: Jodi Taylor
ISBN: 9781472286949

Time Police · Novel 4 · 2022

An arrest connected with questionable historical artefacts becomes the beginning of a very difficult day for Commander Hay.

Book 4 of 6 in The Time Police

AI-generated illustration inspired by About Time; not a book cover.

What it’s about

An arrest connected with questionable historical artefacts becomes the beginning of a very difficult day for Commander Hay. Trouble reaches the Time Police’s own headquarters: an officer is attacked, a prisoner is killed, and the resulting investigation points towards somewhere officers are forbidden to enter.

Meanwhile, Luke, Jane and Matthew face a revelation that threatens their team’s future together. About Time combines an institutional crisis with a personal one.

The organisation must respond to danger inside its own walls while respecting limits on its authority, and Team Weird must contend with information that could separate them. The opening promises a compressed period of mounting problems, rather than a leisurely assignment.

Listen or read

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Can I start here?

This is book 4 in its series. Start with the first novel for its clearest introduction.

Reader questions

Do I need to read the earlier books first?

Starting earlier is recommended: this novel occupies position 4 in the novel sequence. This guide follows that numbered order. Later instalments continue a sequence already under way. Catch up on the preceding books, then return here. You can include their shorter companions if you wish.

Source: joditaylorbooks.com

Who narrates the About Time audiobook?

For this novel, the linked Audible edition credits Zara Ramm as narrator. The narrator credit applies to this linked recording. Other editions may carry the same title. Open the product listing to check and sample the edition. Then plan your next listen through the series guide.

Source: audible.co.uk

Where this fits

Place this novel fourth, after Saving Time and before Killing Time. It builds on Team Weird’s established membership and Commander Hay’s role, so it is a continuation rather than a recommended first book.

Santa Grint is the Time Police short story positioned after this novel in the site’s suggested order, if you want an additional visit before book five.

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Why readers love it

Our view

the headquarters setting and the restrictions on investigation make this a distinctive fourth instalment. An organisation created to enforce rules becomes especially interesting when those rules block its own officers. The premise should appeal to readers who enjoy procedural complications alongside the speculative element.

We also like the contrast between Hay’s responsibility for the wider institution and the trio’s more intimate difficulty staying together. Those two scales give readers a useful choice of interest: the policing problem, the team relationships, or both.

The earlier novels are worth reading before approaching that threatened split.

Listening notes

The standard UK recording listed here is unabridged, narrated by Zara Ramm, and twelve hours and thirty minutes long. Its duration is close to Doing Time’s, though this is a later point in the story.

If you include Santa Grint, select its separate recording after this novel; it is not part of this novel’s listed running time.