Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard’s Reviews > Last Writes > Status Update

I should have read the blurb. This is, technically, a book of short stories, not a novel. However, there's a sort of general thread of codes, bets, cheating, and deception. There are (so far) only three main characters that repeat: Inspector Sloan in the contemporary timeline, Henry Tyler of the Foreign Office in the pre-WWII era, and Highland Sheriff Rhuaraidh MacMillan in the time of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Very unlike anything I have ever read from Aird before. Each chapter so far is from a different perspective and a different timeline, with only one repeat: a Foreign Office man breaking codes in the leadup to WWII; Insp. Sloan, present-day; a woman who killed her husband, 1950s-present; a sheriff under Mary Queen of Scots; a man who killed his wife, 1950s-present. There's no rhyme or reason. Most unusual for her.