Doing Time (The Time Police #1)

Jodi Taylor’s St. Mary’s Historians series is one of my all-time favorites. With Doing Time, the focus changes to Max’s son and young companions who are training to be Time Police. Much of the story is an obvious set-up for a longer running series with characters and conspiracies that may overlap with St. Mary’s history and activity. Unfortunately, there is no strong character voice (like Max’s) to carry the story. Supporting characters (even Ellis, who by now should have much more dimension and presence, but doesn’t) are cardboard and sketchy. These characters may fill out as the series progresses, but right now I found myself skimming and slightly bored with the story, and losing track of who some of the new characters were.

For as long as Matthew has been around in this series, he’s still without much presence. His hair makes numerous appearances, and we get told again that he likes the Star Map. With Jane and Luke we get told things about their lives and histories. Jane dives in to protect her team members from bullies, overcoming personal hesitancy about life in general. Luke tomcats around before suddenly finding his True Personal Strength. A random female villain who seems to be Bitchface Barkley 2 makes a brief appearance. Max makes a brief appearance during an historical moment, but seems to be flattened by stereotyped descriptions of her character and interactions with the Time Police. (“Mother-in-law from hell . . .”)

The best of the St. Mary’s series uses interesting historical scenarios, a well-developed cast of supporting characters, humor that mostly occurs from the juxtaposition of character and situation, and a sense that the characters are in a fight to continue an important mission. I hope the Time Police series can improve to match the original series. I’ll keep reading to find out!

I agree with Glinda Good’s comments. I, too, am a big fan of St. Mary’s and given that this was the first book in a new spinoff series, I had high hopes and expectations. I predicted a Time Police series several books ago, and some elements here (can’t get into spoilers, sorry) are interesting and welcome. They’re few and far between, though. The loyal St. Mary’s reader comes away feeling that this effort was skimpy and rushed, and could have been SO much better with minimal effort. Given that this is a new series, it is surprising how little new is here; there’s very little meat on these few bones.

I’ve bought and read everything that Ms. Taylor has written. This is one of the best works that she has produced.

We’re introduced to Team Weird: Matthew–yes, our own Matthew Farrell, last seen as a boy in “Hope for the Best”–Jane, and Luke. We get to see some of their training, as well as the trouble they get themselves into. There’s action, there’s adventure, there’s character growth. Oh, and we also get some of the St. Mary’s crowd as an added bonus.

It also has one of the best lines ever: “Luke–I am your father.” I laughed for three minutes after reading that.

A superbly satisfying read on all levels. I look forward to the next in the series!

Jodi Taylor is one of the very few authors who can make me laugh aloud while reading (thus annoying those around me, Im sure).

In Doing Time, Ms. Taylor has moved from St. Marys to their arch rival, the dreaded Time Police. It must have a challenge for her to write, as in her St. Marys novels the members of the Time Police are, with just a very, very few exceptions, illiterate Neanderthal buffoons who run around the time line shooting people for the hell of it.

We learn that this description is inaccurate. No more than maybe two-thirds are monosyllabic thugs (for whom its hard to write dialogue); most of the rest are just doing their jobs until they can retire, if they survive that long. And a few a few are good, decent human beings, hoping to guide the organization in more suitable directions, and happily they are in leadership positions. If the aforementioned illiterate, brutal thugs dont manage to violently remove them, there is hope for change.

Into this interesting mess is inserted a group of three misfits, who are our protagonists. One is the wastrel son of a mega-billionaire, a young man who has taken responsibility for nothing in his life. Luke Parrish has not so much joined the Time Police he has been, in his own words, trafficked to the organization his father made quite a large donation to the Widows and Orphans Fund in exchange for their accepting Luke, who had no say in the transaction.

Luke is joined by Jane Lockland, a young woman who has not so much been raised by her grandmother as beaten down by her. She carries a notebook in which she lists everything she hears, in the vain hopes of getting nothing wrong. She has volunteered for the Time Police because she has nowhere else to go. Why they accepted her is another question.

The third member of our unlikely triad is Matthew Farrell, only son of Dr. Lucy Max Maxwell and Chief Technical Officer Leon Farrell, both of the Institute of Historical Research at St. Marys Priory, where they study historical events in contemporary time (not to be confused with time travel). Young Matthew he doesnt actually know how old he is, which is another story had been partly brought up at Time Police headquarters for his own protection (hed already been kidnapped and abused once by someone trying to get at his parents and St. Marys). Hed joined up largely because the Time Police maintained the Time Map, a room-sized depiction of Time which Matthew could somehow comprehend and even manipulate with his mind.

None of the three young people is, on the face of it, a decent candidate for the Time Police. Their collision with the Time Police is the stuff of which delightful comic novels are written.

Highly recommended, particularly to those whove first read the St. Marys novels.

It is fun that there is a question that ask “What did you use this product for” ESCAPE! I used it to escape into the time line with the characters from St. Mary’s. I have to say this. I apologize for even suggesting that Doing Time is not a wonderful book. BUT what happened? How did we go from telling Captain Ellis to never darken St. Mary’s door again. Not to mention having to rescue Matthew as a child from The Time Police School. So how did Matthew become old enough to be a Time Police Recruit, when last we saw him he was on field trip with other children. I trust that book is coming. I know Jodi Taylor will make it wonderful as she does all of her books.

Bottom line this book is wonderful. Yes Max is still a Tiger where her son is concerned. She and Leon play a small role in this book. READ The First book in the St. Mary’s chronicles. This book has many of our old friends in it.

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