FRAGMENTS (Out of Time #3) by Monique Martin-a review

FRAGMENTS (Out of Time #3) by Monique Martin

FRAGMENTS is the third instalment (June 2012 release)  in Monique Martin’s Out of Time series featuring the time travel adventures of Sir Simon Cross and his lady love Elizabeth West. This time, Elizabeth has made a plea with Simon to travel back to war-torn 1942 England in search of a missing member from the Council for Temporal Studies. Knowing the man never returned from a 1906 mission, Elizabeth and Simon will find Evan Eldridge’s photograph in a picture dated from 1942.

Simon was taking Elizabeth back to England to meet his Aunt Victoria, but like many estranged family members, Simon’s anxiety level rose exponentially as the couple’s journey was reaching its’ destination. Knowing the visit would not end well, Simon finally agreed to travel back to 1942 to find the missing man and return him to his own time period. But preparations for a war-ravaged London, England did not prepare themselves for the very real possibility that their presence and investigation would bring them into contact with British Intelligence, the German SS, a military sector of M15 and an America spy named Jack Wells and his British counter-part Blake. But during war, no one is ever who they claim to be.

Evan’s mysterious disappearance continued to baffle Elizabeth and Simon, especially when they finally locate and get permission to visit. Finding Evan in a military hospital under armed guards would throw the couple into a deadly game of espionage and intrigue. Evan’s body and mind were on a slow road to recovery following a massive head injury and bout with pneumonia, and his mind at times tended to wander. But a whisper of cryptic words would send Elizabeth and Simon on a search for the final missing Shard, that not only did the US and British Intelligence want, but the German SS and the Nazi regime. The mythological history surrounding the ancient sword and it’s many broken shards, was a tale that the Nazi’s were willing to prove true.

Simon’s love for Elizabeth is the stuff of fairy tales, and throughout the story his plans to ask her to marry him were continually thwarted and interrupted by a series of events and the continuing saga of war. Once again, I can only hope that there are real men who feel the same about the women in their lives as Simon feels for Elizabeth. Monique’s handling of their relationship is beautiful, but in this particular storyline, their romance and love scenes are few and rare. And Monique’s ability to weave humor into their adventure can only be explained by Zog- good luck to any child with a name like Zog.

Monique’s description of 1942 London England adds to the depth and passion of the storyline as the search for a missing man and the missing shard takes the couple to many of the buildings that will suffer at the hands of the German bombers. From a quiet secluded English countryside to the nightly black-outs in a city hoping to survive another day during the war, FRAGMENTS takes the reader on an adventure- a time warp of sorts- and one that will keep you guessing til the end. And of course, back to the future has a whole new meaning, when Simon and Elizabeth bring someone from the past back to the present.

LINKS TO ORDER:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paper books
B&N Paper Books

Copy supplied by Author

Reviewed by Sandy