Time Jump by Adam Simcox (book review)

‘If I could turn back time. If I could find a way.’ Good old Cher and her lyric writers as she’s described this novel, ‘Time Jump’, and summed up human regret in two sentences.

Rachel is not living her best life. That stopped when she was 18 and killed a man. She regrets it every day and every time she puts out the empties and I don’t mean milk. If only she could change the past and resurrect that dead man.

As this novel is about time travel, along comes someone who offers her the chance to jump and despite the billionaire price tag it won’t cost her a penny. She wins the jump in a draw and decides that she will travel back to the day Princess Diana died in 1997 to make things right.

If you’ve ever played the game of Consequences, you know that nothing good will come of meddling. Creating a whole new timeline inevitably creates ripples and the future unwritten itself.

Rachel is the only person who knows how much her life has changed and the sacrifice demanded.

This book is about time travel but not really. That’s just the set up for the life that follows, when Rachel undoes a thread and time rolls on in a different direction. She can’t forget her previous guilt ridden and drink sodden existence. She can’t unknow what has already happened. Without the change the ensuing mystery and her follow up would not resonate as much as it does.

The major incidents are dramatically and visually satisfying. Time travel is a means to create the mystery and therefore any debate about its feasibility are left at the (TARDIS) door, as ever. We are required to believe it and that is that.

I enjoyed this book. It raises moral questions about extreme wealth alongside why humans live so much in the past and cannot get past their regrets at wrong turns taken.

The ending is exhilarating, powerful action followed by resolution and hope. I really enjoyed this novel as it’s complete within itself without requiring it to be part of a series. That’s good but also I’m looking forward to the next Adam Simcox.

Sue Davies

October 2026

(pub: Renegade Books, 2026. 416 page hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-40875-059-6)

check out website: www.Dialoguebooks.co.uk