This is the fourth book in the Time Police series and for reasons which now escape me, I thought it would be a good idea to cram all the action into one 24-hour period.
[I do sometimes wonder about my thought processes]
Anyway, I threw everything at everyone in this book. Jane’s family trauma – her grandmother – the breakup of Team 236 – America – the unbelievable but unbeatable team of Max and Varma – Callen – everything happens in this one. Great fun to write but complicated. I had charts, diagrams, timelines, major plot points and bits of dialogue scribbled all over the walls and scattered across the floor. And there were a great many sleepless nights as I wrestled with resolving enough issues to satisfy my readers while also making it very clear there was a lot more still to come. I definitely had a few Max moments during this one. You know – those moments when she wonders why on earth she didn’t take that nice job at the abattoir.
It was done eventually and I was quite pleased with it. I did enjoy writing Jane’s horrible grandmother and suggesting she was a truly unpleasant person without going overboard about it. The best bit, though, was trying to calculate how long it would take someone to hit the ground when thrown out of a helicopter.
Many of you will have noticed that maths is not my strong point. I always put it like that because it implies I do actually have strong points, which according to my family is debatable.
I am aware of the thirty feet per second per second thingy, although how to apply it was well beyond my simple abilities. The whole story is told in the Author’s Note at the end of the book but once again I’d like to thank Messrs Hammond, Clarkson and May for their practical advice concerning caravans, helicopters and the dropping of one from the other.
My careful research however was rubbished by Headline who apparently have proper mathematicians, who, presumably, have nothing better to do than criticise their author’s erratic calculations. At this point I should say that their version was nowhere near as dramatic as mine but eventually I merged the two theories – so the ending manages to be both exciting and inaccurate. Which is quite a feat.
Enjoy…
Enjoy an extract read by Jodi Taylor
Twenty-four hours is a long Time in the Time Police.
When a fateful mission to apprehend a minor criminal selling dodgy historical artefacts goes very wrong, Commander Hay faces the longest day of her career.
An officer is attacked within TPHQ. A prisoner is murdered. And investigations are about to lead to the one place where no officer can legally tread.
Worst of all, trouble is brewing for Luke, Jane and Matthew as a shocking revelation threatens to tear Team Weird apart for good....
Next Month’s book will be Killing Time: Book Five in the Time Police Series
According to Aristotle, 24 hours was the amount of time for a perfect Geek tragedy to cover. From the gods setting up the situation (the agon) to the death(s) of the main prot-agonist(s) and maybe the death(s) of the ant-agonist(s).
Sorry that should be Greek tragedy.