What do you think?
Rate this book
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
123 people are currently reading
98 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 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 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.
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!
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.
Read
November 23, 2024I couldn't get into this soo gave up about quarter ofthe book
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews