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The Latch: Or How Helen Broke The World
The year is 2024. The night of Helen Lewison's fiftieth birthday. One bad decision leads her down a side street in downtown Baltimore where she is assaulted, losing consciousness. She awakens again in a hospital bed in the ICU. Except the year is now 2003, and Helen is 29 years old...and thirsty for revenge.
Scared and fearing she's losing her mind, Helen flees the hospital. As she gradually begins to accept her new existence, her thoughts become fueled by hate and fury, and she starts to see this reset as an opportunity to avenge all those who mistreated her throughout her life, including her attacker in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, on an island off the coast of Maine, a group of three men and two women known as The Latch have been alerted to this rewind by an ancient instrument called the Apparat. It is the first awakening of the Apparat in decades, and, per their oaths, The Latch must hunt the Quarry (Helen) using a mysterious portal designed specifically for that purpose. But only one can travel in the portal at any time, a duty which falls to a man named Lionel, who is now in his late-fifties and on his third mission for the Latch.
Lionel's goal is to find and kill the Quarry before she can alter the trajectory of the world, and though the hunt is physically and mentally taxing, and with every hour that passes, the Quarry becomes deadlier, The Latch believes any awakening of the Apparat means the world's stability is at stake, so Lionel has no choice but to see his duty to the end.
Will Lionel be able to stop Helen before she breaks the world?
The Latch is a fast-paced thriller about justice and revenge, but also grace and fate and redemption, and, in the end, it shows how every decision has the potential to impact the world. If you liked 11/22/63 by Stephen King, you will love The Latch.
Scared and fearing she's losing her mind, Helen flees the hospital. As she gradually begins to accept her new existence, her thoughts become fueled by hate and fury, and she starts to see this reset as an opportunity to avenge all those who mistreated her throughout her life, including her attacker in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, on an island off the coast of Maine, a group of three men and two women known as The Latch have been alerted to this rewind by an ancient instrument called the Apparat. It is the first awakening of the Apparat in decades, and, per their oaths, The Latch must hunt the Quarry (Helen) using a mysterious portal designed specifically for that purpose. But only one can travel in the portal at any time, a duty which falls to a man named Lionel, who is now in his late-fifties and on his third mission for the Latch.
Lionel's goal is to find and kill the Quarry before she can alter the trajectory of the world, and though the hunt is physically and mentally taxing, and with every hour that passes, the Quarry becomes deadlier, The Latch believes any awakening of the Apparat means the world's stability is at stake, so Lionel has no choice but to see his duty to the end.
Will Lionel be able to stop Helen before she breaks the world?
The Latch is a fast-paced thriller about justice and revenge, but also grace and fate and redemption, and, in the end, it shows how every decision has the potential to impact the world. If you liked 11/22/63 by Stephen King, you will love The Latch.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2024
153 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Coleman
25 books19 followersLibrarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 16, 2026
This was a great read! Innovative and original in concept, and very well put together. I liked the way the author brought... let's call it the device, but anyway, I liked how he brought the device to the reader through the perspective of those who knew nothing of its origins or the intricacies of its mechanics. They only knew what the device was telling them and that it did work. It's a little writing trick that relieves an author of the task of having to explain a made-up device or concept that might come across as rather implausible. I used a similar approach in one of my books.
The various back stories across the read didn't impede the flow or progress of the story, as some often do, and they even fostered a sense of loyalties torn between the primary characters as they worked towards their separate objectives.
I will say that on a few occasions Helen gave me cause to want to jump inside the book and throttle her because of one or two decisions made without forethought, but that's but one element of a good read.
This book is well worth diving into.
The various back stories across the read didn't impede the flow or progress of the story, as some often do, and they even fostered a sense of loyalties torn between the primary characters as they worked towards their separate objectives.
I will say that on a few occasions Helen gave me cause to want to jump inside the book and throttle her because of one or two decisions made without forethought, but that's but one element of a good read.
This book is well worth diving into.
March 4, 2026
Sometimes you can immediately tell what a book is about just from the title. Not so with this one. A more descriptive title would have been “Helen’s Revenge Tour” as these words pretty much tell you what the plot of the novel is.
Helen is attacked and knocked unconscious and when she wakes up, she finds herself 21 years in the past and 21 years younger but with all the memories of the intervening years still intact. Instead of enjoying her newfound youth, she decides to track down all the people she has felt wronged her in the past and kill them. What is disturbing about her quest is that the punishment does not fit the crime. One of the people she kills was a former classmate of hers whose only crime was being mean to her in school. Did she really deserve death for this? What is also interesting about this revenge tour is that the one person who deserves a comeuppance the most is the one who is least punished.
However, if you can get past this flaw in the story, The Latch is quite a creative time-travel novel and without a doubt an interesting read. It just would have been better if Helen could have been a more sympathetic and forgiving character.
Helen is attacked and knocked unconscious and when she wakes up, she finds herself 21 years in the past and 21 years younger but with all the memories of the intervening years still intact. Instead of enjoying her newfound youth, she decides to track down all the people she has felt wronged her in the past and kill them. What is disturbing about her quest is that the punishment does not fit the crime. One of the people she kills was a former classmate of hers whose only crime was being mean to her in school. Did she really deserve death for this? What is also interesting about this revenge tour is that the one person who deserves a comeuppance the most is the one who is least punished.
However, if you can get past this flaw in the story, The Latch is quite a creative time-travel novel and without a doubt an interesting read. It just would have been better if Helen could have been a more sympathetic and forgiving character.
March 5, 2026
Easily one of the best books I've read. It encompasses a myriad of themes and discussions & questions. The primary arch is simply (not simply) about the fascinating "Butterfly Effect" and the ramifications of tinkering with the past.
The characters are well written and you easily like or dislike them deeply. How far down would someone go for revenge, to right a wrong? Give the power to do so, would they stop at that one incident? Would they pursue every slight and wrong done to them with righteous vengeance? Is it even righteous anymore? No doubt, this had me in Helen's place, imagining how I could change my life if I went back 20 years.
One could also question how a person's life path may change due to one incident, one person crossing their path. Is a man who committed evil in the future still an evil man in the past?
It would be easy to just say this book concludes with "it's all well that ends well". But does it really? Do all punishments fit the crime? Why is it that some get off the hook for what they've done, but others don't?
A lovely read.
The characters are well written and you easily like or dislike them deeply. How far down would someone go for revenge, to right a wrong? Give the power to do so, would they stop at that one incident? Would they pursue every slight and wrong done to them with righteous vengeance? Is it even righteous anymore? No doubt, this had me in Helen's place, imagining how I could change my life if I went back 20 years.
One could also question how a person's life path may change due to one incident, one person crossing their path. Is a man who committed evil in the future still an evil man in the past?
It would be easy to just say this book concludes with "it's all well that ends well". But does it really? Do all punishments fit the crime? Why is it that some get off the hook for what they've done, but others don't?
A lovely read.
March 3, 2025
I Want More
This is the tale of a woman, Helen, who's life is turned upside down when she is attacked in a bad neighborhood. She awakens in a hospital. But she is 20 years younger & full of rage.
Elsewhere, in the far northern US, 5 people are alerted that something is not right in the world. It is their duty to track down & kill the time traveler before our world is destroyed. Four of those will research & locate the time displacement. One will travel back in time to apprehend & kill the Quarry before irreversible damage is done.
What an unusual time travel story. I found myself being sorry the book ended. I want more. I'm hoping Mr. Coleman revisits the tale and gives more of the story behind & around The Latch.
This is the tale of a woman, Helen, who's life is turned upside down when she is attacked in a bad neighborhood. She awakens in a hospital. But she is 20 years younger & full of rage.
Elsewhere, in the far northern US, 5 people are alerted that something is not right in the world. It is their duty to track down & kill the time traveler before our world is destroyed. Four of those will research & locate the time displacement. One will travel back in time to apprehend & kill the Quarry before irreversible damage is done.
What an unusual time travel story. I found myself being sorry the book ended. I want more. I'm hoping Mr. Coleman revisits the tale and gives more of the story behind & around The Latch.
January 19, 2026
A Truly Gripping Thriller with Great Plot Twists!
The Latch: Or How Helen Broke The World" was my introduction to Christopher Coleman's writing, and I am incredibly impressed. I was hooked from the very first chapter, and the storytelling skill absorbed me throughout the entire book.
The narrative is a fast-paced thriller with an interwoven, complex plot that explores themes of justice, revenge, grace, and fate. The story follows Helen, a woman whose life is turned upside down after an attack, leading her to wake up 20 years younger and full of rage in an alternate reality. Meanwhile, a mysterious group known as "The Latch" must hunt her down across time to prevent her from altering the world's trajectory.
The Latch: Or How Helen Broke The World" was my introduction to Christopher Coleman's writing, and I am incredibly impressed. I was hooked from the very first chapter, and the storytelling skill absorbed me throughout the entire book.
The narrative is a fast-paced thriller with an interwoven, complex plot that explores themes of justice, revenge, grace, and fate. The story follows Helen, a woman whose life is turned upside down after an attack, leading her to wake up 20 years younger and full of rage in an alternate reality. Meanwhile, a mysterious group known as "The Latch" must hunt her down across time to prevent her from altering the world's trajectory.
February 8, 2026
Helen is being hunted in her past after a strange experience during a mugging and rape. No explanation of how she got back there but the story works and she influences history short stay there before returning during her battle with her erstwhile killer and the member of the Latch sent to "neutralise" her, remove her from her past while the secret organisation is undergoing a crisis of management and wondering whether they are doing the right thing. A different take on time travel.
November 12, 2024
A unique and wonderful concept of time travel and its ramifications. Filled with characters that the reader will either love or hate, trust or distrust and want to follow to the end. Spectacular!
February 19, 2026
Really enjoyed this book. Here's a one line review; The last line gave me chills!!
November 30, 2024
Not usually a topic that interests me. Time travel. Brutal at times and certain scenarios could trigger some readers. Long and windy but quite easy to follow.Found it interesting and the ending finishes the book out nicely.
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November 23, 2024I couldn't get into this soo gave up about quarter ofthe book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews