Okay, I’ve read both books. Now for some comments, and hopefully a few answers to a few questions I have.
I have to say that, despite some reservations, the books do hold your attention and are on balance quite absorbing. The author obviously is as in love with WWII Britain as Colin with Polly Churchill- but then to a considerable extent so am I, as someone who has B.A. and M.A. history degrees. Being of Irish-German-Hungarian Catholic extraction I think I assumed I was an Anglophobe but the history grounding, plus reading Tolkien’s (of course an English (not British J Catholic) Middle-earth novels helped. Btw, how much of a Middle-Earth fan? I’ve done the Oxford Inklings gravesite tours (Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc.). Anyhoo…
Willis’ extensive and intensive London sites and social interactions at times may seem overdone, but that very aspect lends them verisimilitude (not unlike Tolkien’s depiction of Middle-Earth). And while the character depictions are generally one-sided they work overall in a crucial aspect- to evoke your sympathy for them as characters and their situations and interactions.
From the two books blurbs, and comments by some on an earlier thread by myself, I assume that this is one part of the Oxford 2060 time travel world. So how come other countries aren’t using time travel, and what if just one decides to try to manipulate history? Wouldn’t you need an agency like Poul Anderson’s Time Patrol? Oh, and given the bare competence of supervisor Mr. Dunworthy shouldn’t the apparently far more competent and perseptive Polly be named new supervisor? J
The plot has an interesting, and pretty satisfying, twist near the end- albeit one which is worn a bit too much to death in exposition. And there are a few too many “cliff hangers” which turn out to a bit too much not that disastrous.
Also, there is the, as almost always in time loop aspects, a bit unsatisfying resolution/explanation. But, the tale does work. (Another disclaimor) when in London once I went to a museum (I forget the name) that featured aspects of the city under the blitz and war in general and I thought the author did bring that aspect of WWII London alive.
(more below)
Some questions:
1) What did you think of the resolution to the apparent disaster of the drops refusing to open?
2) Was Eileeen/Merope's husband the Vicar? (Binnie is refeered to as Goody in 1995).
3) Is Merope an ancestor (great-great-geandmother?) of Polly? Consider:
"Michael's my son, and Mary's my sister- half-sister really, though I never think of her that way."
"She's Eileen's daughter ?"
"I'm sorry. I keep thinking you know all this. Mum-Eileen-married the-"
...
"Eileen married-?" Colin prompted her, shouting over the noise.
Binnie didn't answer. She was staring at him with an odd look on her face, as if she'd just realized something.
"What is it? What's wrong?" he said, wondering if the sounds had triggered some traumatic memory. "Are you all right?"
"How strange," she murmured. "I wonder if she...? That would explain..."
(And then she clams up on the subject). hey, I've always been bad at figuring out Agatha Christie novels. Could it be...? Is it possible...? Might she mean...? AGH!!!