A Review of The Time Seam, by Sylvia Kelso

The Time Seam by Sylvia Kelso

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Previously in this universe, in The Solitaire Ghost: Blackston Gold, Book One:
Dorian Wild had a pretty good life: a nice place to live in Ibisville, North Queensland, a junior partnership in a law firm, good friends, and things with Chris Keogh, her geologist boyfriend, were going well. Then, one day, going up the elevator at work, a ghost--or so it seems--appears. That changes things, to say the least--for Dorian, for Chris, and her friends and fellow law partners, Laura and Anne.

The ghost, with a glorious red beard, and in the garb of a 19th-century prospector, appears again--and again. Something fishy is going on at the Ben Morar gold mine, near the old goldfield town of Blackston, where Chris has found a rich new goldfield with new cutting-edge mining technology he has developed. Not to mention the firm is under threat of takeover by the American mining megacorporation, Pan-Auric.

Then, Chris is killed in a car wreck that can only be called suspicious--after he has resigned in protest of the plans for the new goldfield by Pan-Auric--plans which will cause irreparable damage. Chris's last message to Dorian: find a good environmental lawyer.

Threats, and more threats. And Dorian keeps falling through a "fold in time," the one that seems to keep bringing the so-called ghost into the present. Eventually, the ghost appears in the daytime and, it seems he is here for good. But a ghost, he isn't: this ghost is Jimmy Keenighan, from Northern Ireland and an activist for land rights and unions and a reporter for The North Queensland Miner--and he is very much alive ....

The adventure continues in The Time Seam, the conclusion to the Blackston Gold saga, and Kelso again delivers in a tale no less compelling than Book One. Dorian has to confront corporate evil at its worst, the huge American mining corporation, Pan-Auric, the epitome of American capitalist greed gone very bad, complete with evil goons who do very bad things. Pan-Auric will stop at nothing for control of Chris's technology and this new mine. These goons are told to do what they have to stop Dorian, and her legal threats, including kidnapping and holding children hostage and, evidently, murder. This new mine Chris's technology has discovered happens to right under the town of Blackston, which means Pan-Auric will have to destroy the town to get to the gold. To Pan-Auric, this is clearly a small matter, and incidental to the potential profits. Dorian's friends are the ones kidnapped and Dorian finds herself and Jimmy involved in a tense confrontation with the goon kidnappers which kept me on the edge of my seat.

This is a classic David-and-Goliath struggle and its outcome is by no means assured.

Dorian also finds herself, as things get darker and even more dangerous, falling in love with Jimmy, the man from the 19th century. Can he stay? How do you finagle the paperwork for a man who was born too many years ago? He has "no British passport. He has no Australian passport. He has no known address in the British Isles . .. no known address in Australia. No bank accounts, credit cards, driver's license . . . He has no visa or record of entry into Australia" (271).
Staying in the present won't be easy. Should he even try? Will he? Would his staying change the past he is from? Has his being in the 21st century already changed the past--and the present? Or is there a paradox that will make your head hurt to figure out? Is she even ready for this romance--it hasn't been that long since Chris's death.

The Time Seam is no less a page turner than The Solitaire Ghost, and no less dramatic and compelling. There are shootouts at the mine, legal drama, the evolving relationship between a 21st-century woman and a 19th-century man--there is a lot of territory of sexual mores and customs to be negotiated before Dorian and Jimmy find each other on common ground. Never mind the legal issues!

I read this book, as I did the last one, at a fast clip. I wanted to find out what was going to happen, if the David/little good guys were going to beat the evil Goliath/megacorporation or not and just how were they going to do it, and Dorian and Jimmy--will they have a happy ending?

No, I am not going to tell you how all it turns out--read the book. But I will say this: the ending is satisfying; it works. Kelso's talent as a writer and a storyteller and a wordsmith shines in this well-told sequel as much as it did in The Solitaire Ghost.
Highly recommended.



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