The 13th Hour-Richard Doetsch

The 13th Hour
Richard Doetsch
Atria, Dec 2009, $25.99
ISBN: 9781439147917

In Byram Hills, New York, the police arrest Nick Quinn for murdering his wife Julia. The case seems air tight against Nick as Julia called 911 implying Nick was hurting her just before she was shot in the head. The murder weapon has his prints and his hand has gunpowder residue. He had the means and opportunity and though not as clear the motive.

While Nick is left alone in the police interrogation room brooding, grieving and frightened, a stranger arrives offering Nick a chance to go back twelve hours in time. However, he can only do so at one hour intervals. Nick welcomes the opportunity to simply prevent his wife’s murder. Yet as he returns to the past, he begins to understand time is not isolated or linear as an event as multiple repercussions; what seemed so simple turns out convoluted as he is soon dealing with a plane crash and other links that he never tied to his wife’s death.

This is a fascinating complicated time travel thriller that grips the audience throughout though only Nick seems multifaceted as everyone else is stereotyped to enhance his degree of difficulty. The story line is fast-paced even as the more the protagonist works his quest the more intricate the plot turns. Readers will want to go back in time with Nick as he learns turning back the hands of time is not easy.

Harriet Klausner