Review ~ The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

Michael Joseph
May 2013

The River of No Return

by

Bee Ridgway

“A story of love and time travel”

It’s 1812, and on a battlefield in Spain, Lord Nicholas Falcott is about to be run through by a French Dragoon, when suddenly he disappears, and jumps forward in time two hundred years. Mysteriously managed by an organisation known quite simply as The Guild, Nicholas is told that he can no longer go back to his own time, and he must tell no-one what has happened to him. What then follows is an unusual and inventive look at time travel, and how it affects those whose lives have been disordered by the manipulation of time.

Initially, the book gets off to a slow start, the first hundred or so pages appear a little ponderous as much of the narrative is concerned with the notion of time travel, but once the concept is grasped and the story starts to evolve in a more structured way, The River of No Return becomes quite fascinating reading and a real page turner. I enjoyed the historical elements of the story; the Regency era is particularly well done and whilst this remains central to the story, the futuristic elements contribute equal fascination.

Combining science fiction, with historical fiction is not an easy feat to pull off, and yet Bee Ridgway has succeeded admirably in this, her debut novel. I look forward to following her writing career with interest.

4****

My thanks to Real Readers for a review copy of this book