Past or Present? Is There a Difference?
4
By RobbobReview
Turn Back Time is a suspense ridden thriller bringing events from the past back into the present. In this heart wrenching tale, Alex Mercer is on a quest of protecting his sister, Macy, from cult leaders who kidnapped her when she was a teenager. Macy’s determination to escape her kidnappers led to a rebellion inside the cult causing the leaders to be imprisoned and disbandment of the group.
Now, 10 years later, they are back with most of the ‘prophets' out of prison. The High Prophet Jonah, is reestablishing his cult one kidnapping at a time and Macy is high on his list for retribution. He holds her responsible for ‘sins’ against the community and is prepared to wield extreme punishment to her and those ‘rebels’ who led the uprising and escaped with Macy. They include husband, Luke, and mother-in-law, Lottie, who also were cult members.
Even after 10 years, Macy still suffers nightmares. Now they learn Lottie is missing. ‘Jonah’ is grabbing each ‘rebel’ one by one to bring them back to his community, to wield ‘justice’. He also is grabbing all the former members of the community to bring them back ‘home’.
Stacy Claflin weaves a story of intrigue, fear and despair while dropping bread crumbs of hope throughout the book. Past and current events are brought together in a way that the reader knows what is happening without having to read earlier books in this trilogy. That being said, I’m sure those who have read the other books in this Gone Saga, will appreciate the background from those books.
My only complaint with Turn Back Time was I thought the characters often had knee jerk reactions when dealing with these cult problems. If Luke wants to be ‘bait’ for Jonah to ‘catch’ him, one would think he'd use some type of ‘tracking’ device in or on him. Also, he and Alex go off to locate a dangerous, armed cult without any weapons themselves. Macy, pretty much allows her second kidnapping by her actions and Captain Nick, knowing how dangerous ‘Chester’ is gets him out of a maximum security prison to try to obtain needed information about the cult. He knows Chester already has had recent visitors from cult members, but doesn’t arrange proper security or ‘tails’ to follow the transfer of this murderer and kidnapper.
That being said, those are minor compared to the whole storyline. If you like mystery, intrigue and suspense along with a little romance and hope, Turn Back Time will deliver. It also leaves a hint of another future thriller involving Ari, the 11 year old daughter of Alex Mercer. Time will tell.