ARC Review: The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths

The Killing Time
Author: Elly Griffiths
Series: Ali Dawson Mysteries (Book 2)
Publication: Pamela Dorman Books (November 17, 2026)

Description: The second mystery following Ali Dawson, the brilliant time-traveling detective, on her newest foray into Victorian London

Detective Ali Dawson leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel back in time to solve them. But ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, Ali and her team have been forbidden from time travel.

At a loss, Ali dives into a present-day case – an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. Ali believes the death is linked to a bad-news psychic medium, Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Suspicious, Ali attends one of Power’s shows, where he claims to be in contact with none other than Jones.

Minor trouble closer to home inspires Ali to sneak back in time just long enough to prevent misfortune. Her plan backfires, and she finds herself once again in Victorian London, where she reencounters Jones, as well as the darkly mysterious Cain Templeton, with whom Ali has unfinished business from her previous visit to the nineteenth century . . .

When she spies Barry Power lurking in the past, Ali knows she's onto something. But with a potential murderer operating in multiple centuries, how on earth is she supposed to protect everyone at risk?

It's a different time. It's a dangerous time. It's the killing time.

My Thoughts: This is the second Ali Dawson mystery. Ali is a police officer assigned to a Cold Case division. Their cases are so cold that they have used time travel to solve them. However, their last mission left the physicist who is the only one to understand the process stranded in London in the 1850s.

Their department has been gutted leaving only Dawson, DI John Cole, and civilian computer analyst Dina manning the division. They have been forbidden by the Home Office from doing any more time travel. Of course, Dr. Serafina Pelegrino Jones was the expert and now only her assistant Dr. Bud Sirisema is left to help with the time traveling so the question of time travel is rather moot. 

Bud thinks he might be starting to understand how time travel works but isn't ready to try it. That leaves current day cold cases to the team. They take a case to look into the suicide of a young man who was convinced by a modern-day psychic Barry Powers that he could fly. 

Ali and Dina attend one of his shows and, while most can be easily explained away, Powers mentions a message from Serafina and indicates that he has known Ali in a past life. When confronted, he claims that he might have channeled Victorian psychic Klaus Kramer but doesn't remember giving the young man any advice. 

Ali needs to consult with her second ex-husband to find out more about Kramer since he has written a paper about him. Kramer's fame hasn't lasted to the present day. 

Then, Ali's cat Terry goes missing and she convinces Bud to send her back in time just a couple of days so that she can lock the cat flap and prevent Terry's disappearance. Something goes wrong however and she finds herself back in the 1850s where she finds Jones and reconnects with Cain Templeton and others she met on her first visit. 

She finds her cat but has to find her own way back home to her own time. While she is gone, both her second ex-husband and Barry Powers are murdered with the same MO. The police would like to talk to Ali about it. 

This was another entertaining time travel adventure. I liked the characters and the setting of both modern London and London in the 1850s.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.