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When a mysterious force known only as the Shadow infiltrates history, it has a suspicious target: the date October 29 in six different years spanning 999 to 1980. The Time Patrol must send its highly skilled members into the past with only twenty-four hours to stop the destruction each time.

Each targeted date features a significant event, including Sir Walter Raleigh’s beheading in 1618, the American stock market crash of 1929, and the first Internet message sent in 1969. But the missions are never as clear-cut as they seem, leading the team straight into the dangerous paths of extraordinary adversaries, such as yetis, krakens, and Vikings.

As time grows short, the Time Patrol learns that no amount of training and experience can prepare them for the enemies they battle and the alternate realities they face. And now, six changes to history could lead to the ultimate catastrophe: the end of existence.

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2015

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About the author

Bob Mayer

212 books47.8k followers
Besides my own interests, I read whatever my wife tells me to read-- she's a voracious reader and has wide-ranging tastes as my reviews show (she also always has the TV remote and she's always right about what to watch). I read a lot of nonfiction, mostly for research. Some of my favorite books are Lonesome Dove, Mystic River, LOTR, and an array of science fiction classics including the Foundation series. Our house is covered with books, although I finally broke down and started reading eBooks, strangely enough on my iPhone. Since I carry it pretty much everywhere, it means I always have an entire library of books with me.

I'm a West Point graduate, former Green Beret and a New York Times Bestselling Author. I've sold over five million books. My newest series begins with New York Minute, a thriller set in New York City in 1977.

I love using history and science in my books. My Area 51 series pretty much had me rewriting our entire history of civilization.

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5 stars
160 (34%)
4 stars
153 (32%)
3 stars
117 (24%)
2 stars
28 (5%)
1 star
12 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
2 reviews2 followers
August 17, 2015
I have been reading this author for more years than I'm willing to admit here. His books make for easy reading and have been entertaining for the most part. But Black Tuesday is not his normal book. I was sent an advance copy to review and expected the same fast easy read I have seen in the other books. I didn't get it. Instead I received what I feel is one of the best ten books I have ever read. I already knew the characters from the other four books but hadn't really become invested in them.

This book changed that. Mayer has made a huge leap here from writer to true author. This is one of those books that might confuse reading seen as a stand alone book. But even with that limitation this is still a book that will catch you from page one and carry you along. If you enjoy it then go back and read the first four but fair warning this ties into another series of books so you might end the next few months reading pre-planed.

From Niven to Card to King this book stacks right up with their best. What had been a minor new character has blossomed into someone I find myself looking forward to knowing better as the story line plays out. I really was shocked to have the reaction to this book I had. It is one of the best I have read. The time travel plot might put some off but the way it's done let's us know the characters in a different setting then the past books and it works very well. I would recommend this book highly.
Profile Image for Viking Jam.
1,368 reviews23 followers
July 27, 2015
https://koeur.wordpress.com/2015/07/2...

Publisher: 47 North

Publishing Date: August 2015

ISBN: 9781503946637

Genre: SciFi

Rating: 2.2/5

Publisher Description: When a mysterious force known only as the Shadow infiltrates history, it has a suspicious target: the date October 29 in six different years spanning 999 to 1980. The Time Patrol must send its highly skilled members into the past with only twenty-four hours to stop the destruction each time.

Review: This read like an old Doc Savage novel where you have 7 eclectic personalities, uniquely qualified to execute a planned strategy while being adaptable enough to overcome and improvise in any situation. Fug. Their banter is reminiscent of having been through many tough missions together but because of a lack of character development and story line, you feel like an outsider looking in. The funniest thing about the plot is that not one of these operatives know what the fug to do in the past. Should they stop whatever may happen or simply expedite what transpired in history to keep the status quo? How are they figuring that out? Gut feeling? Sense of smell? Following the goodness of their hearts? Every time they ask their leader, Dane, what to do he says “…Again, we don’t know. We have projected several possibilities….” Really?

Another big hole in the plot was the unexplained acceptance of the time traveler. Are they taking over a resident body? Or is it that when they appear, the timeline has already adjusted for their presence? Who are the operatives in history and how do they know that a traveler from the future is coming? Since they are already there, why don’t they do the heavy lifting? How are they coincidentally there at pivotal moments? The “Time Palace” is never adequately explained to the characters or the reader. Its a “place” where people work on moments in history within their specific timeline. This also happens to be where they jump to the past, but never into the future. Why? Got me. There are Krakens, and Yetis and Nazi’s, OH MY! Every chapter has this annoying recap in history with the ending tag, “Some things change; some don’t.” Wow, mind blown.

The characters lacked development and relied on the emotional and snarky for depth. While the movement was good, the characters continued to be shallow with patterned emotional responses. The story line has been over done and could have used a creative infusion. What we got was history that is not history and the meandering of characters stumbling over a confused story line. Jen Talty more than likely edited this one.
Profile Image for Melek.
458 reviews32 followers
August 10, 2015
Overall, Time Patrol is the kind of book you would read only if you need some mindless action. It's like watching a late night TV action movie. You know what I mean. I'm not saying this as a bad thing, go for it if you want/need to, but this is no book to read with high or literary expectations.

In my case, I expected Time Patrol to be a comic book. Way to judge a book by its cover.
Profile Image for Icy_Space_Cobwebs  Join the Penguin Resistance!.
5,652 reviews330 followers
August 25, 2015
REVIEW: BLACK TUESDAY by Bob Mayer
[AREA 51: A Time Patrol Novel]

There is something about Bob Mayer's authorship that sets him in a class by himself. He can write fiction on any topic: military, historical legend, time travel, science fiction, and I'll gleefully read it, knowing it will be simultaneously riveting, enthralling, and mind-boggling. Such with BLACK TUESDAY, which expanded my historical knowledge while leaving me both speechless and awestruck, a very happy reader. BLACK TUESDAY: it s not just 1929.
4 reviews
August 22, 2015
I don’t write too many reviews, but I received a pre release volume of this book so I thought I’d pay him back by attempting to write one.
I have been reading this author since the late nineties when I ran across his Area 51 series. I think I’ve read all of his books since then and they all have been great. His books have always been entertaining tying together historical enigma, lore, mythology, military knowledge into an intriguing story. They seem to be well researched and this novel is no exception. As the title states, this book is about a group that goes back in time to stop history from being altered. He does a good job of integrating 7 or 8 story lines in the book. If you read the previous Nightstalkers - Time Patrol books, you’ll know the characters. You don’t have to have read the other 4 books first to enjoy this book, but it is recommended. This series doesn’t have as much action as some of his previous series, but it was an entertaining read and highly recommended.
February 4, 2019
Packed

The most packed in the Nightstalker / Time Patrol series so far. However, I noticed something incorrect. The Administrator already told the Team he was from a different Timeline in the previous book. But in the beginning of this book, he (re)-introduced himself to the team and said he is from the Team's Timeline, what's more, not a single member of the Team corrected him for his lies.

Then at the end of the book, Sin explained (again) that the Administrator is from a different Timeline.

I think this was a mistake. The Administrator being from a different Timeline is the correct one, otherwise the previous novel and this one wouldn't make any sense at all.

Just thought I should mention it.

Other than that, I'm still giving this novel 5/5 stars.
Profile Image for Chance.
1,110 reviews21 followers
October 30, 2020
The past makes the future the present defines us

The story has a quirks from the start when reused a lot of paragraphs to start later chs was kingdom of annoying but it also fit with it being a time travel story. Has this was my first Bob Mayer novel I didn’t relished that this was series’s precursors novels that built its foundation but it was helpful with the chacther s going over things that lead to this moment do it would be helpful if there was a list of what books to read in which order. The story was about 5/10 in creativity 7/10 in differsty, 4/10 in thriller so not the best but nice novel to recommend to a person so a series with a lot of world building in it.
Profile Image for Michael.
652 reviews8 followers
May 7, 2017
Enjoyable book, as are all Bob Mayer's books, but the editing of my copy is weird. Early on, many sections are repeated wholesale which comes over as a strange case of deja-vu. Possibly just a problem with my copy but strange nevertheless.
The format of six different stories running side by side following the adventures of different members of the Time Patrol in the past is fascinating particularly those who, like me, love history.
Love Scout. More of her please!
41 reviews
June 27, 2017
Fun concept but it's very much part of a larger series which I haven't read, even though it's tagged as #1. So much of the book is given to continuing the larger story that it distracts from what's going on. Angst happening over stuff that I had no knowledge of so struggled to relate to the characters.
Profile Image for Trevor.
1,453 reviews2 followers
September 23, 2019
The Nightstalkers have become the Time Patrol, as they travel back to save the present and future. Time travel books are complicated, but Bob Mayer does a good job. As they are individual assignments, the group dynamic was lost some what, which is a shame.
2 reviews4 followers
June 20, 2022
The concept of time travel is explored a little, but the idea of sending special forces back in time to keep history from changing is very interesting. I thought the twist for October 29, 1929 was well done.
Profile Image for Toby Tsoutseos.
28 reviews
August 27, 2018
Surprisingly good

It was a gift so I thought I should read it. I started it reluctantly but as it gained pace I enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Craig.
348 reviews
September 20, 2015
*Goodreads First Reads Advanced Copy*

As a whole, I found Time Patrol: Black Tuesday to be a highly entertaining and interesting story. The author does a good job of creating a time travel story that while it is unique, it maintains the normal perils inherent with time travel. That being said, there were a few aspects of the story that prevented me from rating it any higher than a 4 star.

First, the story seemed to introduce too many characters right away. I would have liked to have a more gradual introduction to the characters.

Secondly, there was a point early on where the story felt really repetitive. The first paragraph detailing as each character arrived in their time destination was almost exactly the same. The only differences were the character's name and the destination. To me that detracted from the story.

Once it got past that point the story seemed to pick up quickly. The little twists were intriguing. The only other part of the story that felt off to me was that one of the six targeted changes in the past was the elimination of one of the time travelers. I found two problems with this. One; how did the enemy know which time period that traveler would go to? The story made it out to be that specific traveler that was special enough to have to die. Secondly, wouldn't it have been easier to just target that traveler in the present, or at least target a younger version that was in that time period.

Overall the story was worth reading. I liked it enough to want to sample more of Bob Mayer's writing. I would recommend it to all fans of time travel stories as well as fans of sci-fi/adventure stories.
Profile Image for Ms. Just One More Book  (Kris Miller).
154 reviews16 followers
November 27, 2016
Wow! There's not much I can say without giving away too many spoilers. I can say this book had a plethora of intricate and convoluted arcs blended into one well thought out storyline. What I loved the most were the surprises that I didn't anticipate, as the stories took on unforseen twists and turns. I tend to over analyze when reading, prematurely fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.  So if an author can surprise me, let's just say I'm automatically more endeared to that author.

This is the first book I've read from Bob Mayers. Prior to stumbling upon this, I had somehow never heard the name, but it will not be the last. This is also the second book in this series, 'Time Patrol' (the fourth in the Area 51 series) is the first. I didn't know that until after I finished. In reading a few of the reviews,  some stated that had you not read the previous books/series, you would surely be lost. I didn't find that to be the case. The author has a writing style that lays everything out clearly and concisely, making it easy to follow. For me, it just gave me added interest in his previous works, all of them to be exact.

Lastly, I read a couple reviews that said it was confusing and disconjointed. To that, I can only say, it is a time travel novel. Most time travel novels do not follow a linear time line, so pay attention to each header as to the year, date, character, etc. Overall, a well written book, with an extremely intriguing and suspenseful storyline, propelled by interesting characters. I look forward to catching up on the past works of this amazing author and reading anything new by him as well.
Profile Image for Beau.
311 reviews7 followers
August 22, 2015
For the first third of this book, I struggled. Perhaps I should have read some of the books before this one. But for whatever reason, I almost gave up. I'm glad I didn't.

This book has 6 different Time Patrol missions, that all happen at the same time. Each goes to Oct 29 in a different year in history: 999, 1972, 1929 and so on. One agent goes to each place, not knowing what they are supposed to do to prevent the destruction of our timeline. All they know is that there are "ripples" around that time and place, and that they will know it when they see it.

But once each agent got back to their time period, and discovered what The Shadow was trying to do to change the timeline, the story became robust, varied, and gripping. The things that were at stake were things that I found myself caring about, and hoping for the good ending. When you don't know the characters well enough to care about them, having an opinion about the timeline works just fine to get the reader involved.

I enjoyed the book, and there was a wrinkle that I won't spoil about some $10,000 bills. That's going to have to be sorted out later, I guess. I'll have to try another one.
Profile Image for Dalice Peterson.
53 reviews
August 25, 2015
[He] wasn’t there, and then he was there, but he’d sort of always been there.

This is a really interesting take on time travel. The Nightstalkers/Time Patrol go back to the 29th of October in wildly separate years. (The 29th appears to be, even in the real world, a nexus of scary proportions.) Their task is to prevent alterations to the here and now timeline. It was interesting to watch the individuals of the team act alone, separated from their teammates - they became more distinct personalities even while missing the team. The book is a complex story bringing in characters from some of Mayer’s previous books and yes, previous timelines. Pay attention and look for the clues to the twists for each day; it’s worth it.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC for an honest review.

Sigh. Now I feel compelled to go reread the entire Atlantis series.
146 reviews3 followers
April 19, 2020
I reread it and enjoyed it better the second time around.
The Time patrol is a covert organization unknown to most, and exists to safeguard time.
A mysterious force infiltrates history and tries to change time. The Time Patrol sends in its
skilled members to stop these changes. This is a complex mystery, one that is taking place in six
different years and locations, and spans a period from 999 to 1980. It’s interesting because
these events are actual events from history and may be familiar to you, however, the added
scenarios and characters are creations of the imagination. The suspense is good, the
characterization is good, but jumping from one time period to another without much explanation
in the beginning is a little confusing. Eventually things start showing a pattern and making sense.
Profile Image for Mary Hartshorn.
593 reviews2 followers
August 21, 2015
This was an interesting book about time patrol agents going back to strategic points in history to prevent the destruction of our world as we know it. Bob Mayer is an excellent storyteller, flawlessly integrating six different timelines in history that might be altered by the Shadow, a mysterious force responsible for the destruction of Atlantis. The Potential Palace, each of the time agents, and the Administrator make you want to learn more about them. Even the Crystal skulls were integrated into this story, with an intriguing explanation as to how they were made. If you are intrigued by the concept of time travel, multiple dimensions, paranormal creatures, a touch of history, and a place with gates into the past, then you should really try this book.
Profile Image for Tabby Shiflett.
1,062 reviews16 followers
September 1, 2015
A military time-travel novel that focuses on different events throughout history (historical events that take place on October 29th). This book is a quick and easy read that's very entertaining. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. The plot and the characters are enticing and there's plenty of action. Although there are other overlapping series that relate to this one, you can read this book as a stand-alone (but you may be tempted to read the others). You can tell the author really put some major historical research into this work. I can easily see this novel made into a movie. For military/time-travel fans or anyone looking for a weekend read.

Net Galley Feedback
28 reviews
June 5, 2016
Never Diss Your Librarians!

Rollicking great fun as an elite team of military, scientists, X-Files types tramp the timeline protecting the past to ensure our future.

Their weapons? The usual guns, knives, and mayhem; but the real weapon information of history.

Don't go dissing librarians oh worthy author, without us you would have little ammo for your word processor, or your www searches and we write book reviews bucko.

A series to follow if the author can gain control of his stereotypes.
Profile Image for Ron.
4,082 reviews11 followers
August 24, 2015
The Nightstalker team (now part of the Time Patrol) are sent on separate missions that all take place on October 29th in various years such as 1929, 999, 1972, 1969, 1980, and 1618. Each had an event to protect and faced armed opposition. Each learned something about themselves and the ongoing conflict with the Shadow. Bob Mayer turned in another quick reading, action-filled adventure that fleshes out his interconnected series a bit more. Do enjoy reading it!
Profile Image for ✿Claire✿.
307 reviews40 followers
February 13, 2017
Not the first Bob Mayer book I've read, this will spur me on to go back and read the others again (and the ones I've missed in the middle!). A great read, it seemed a little disjointed to start with but all (or at least a lot) becomes clear as the book goes on and the plot is revealed. This book fits well in the world I've already read about that he's created and continues the story I vaguely remember from before, with the addition of time travel!!
Profile Image for Amanda.
134 reviews47 followers
October 1, 2015
I recieved a copy of this book through Goodreads Giveaway. It took me a bit longer to finish this book than it did to finish each of the Nightstalker books. I really liked it though. I enjoyed the look into the different points in history and also that we got to see what each character is like without the team.
Profile Image for Benton Mcpeak.
97 reviews
September 14, 2015
I love the Time Patrol books and the inclusion of the Night Stalkers as the stars makes it perfect. I look forward to the next installment and hope the character growth will continue. The more details we know of the characters the more we enjoy the story.
Profile Image for Richard.
1,634 reviews
December 10, 2015
Looks like a promising series for Bob Mayer. I like the way he uses historic events in some of his books to support a story. Turledove proposes alernate histories but Mayer keeps the accepted view and embellishes.
Profile Image for Joel White.
10 reviews
April 6, 2016
Lots of fun. I really enjoyed the playful way time is treated.
Profile Image for Robert Mills.
124 reviews
September 11, 2016
I like all his work but there were parts that seemed to be written that left the sentence seem clunky and detract from the scene.
Profile Image for Nadia.
91 reviews4 followers
December 3, 2016
unable to understand where it was going as very bittey
Profile Image for Rhea.
32 reviews2 followers
October 10, 2017
Terrible!! Massive let down. Interesting premise but a horribly butchered execution. Upset at wasting so many weeks on it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews

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