The Cutting Room (The Complete Season) by Edward W. Robertson
Self-published (January 8, 2014)
Review by N. E. White.
This is one of those amazing finds on Amazon that make it worth slogging through all the ‘less than perfect’ self-published novels. Once you start reading, this book is hard to put down. But before I start gushing too much about this time-travel tale of mystery and deception, allow me give you a rundown of the story.
Initially released as a serial, The Cutting Room’s first section introduces the reader to Blake Din’s world, a world where a young boy is on the cusp of being brutally murdered – again. But Blake has traveled back in time to stop it.
Okay, wait, back up.
Not our timeline. That’s Primetime, and strictly off-limits. No one goes back to mess with Primetime, but havoc can and does ensue in earth’s multiple, parallel timelines.
So why is Blake visiting a parallel universe to save one boy? Is one boy’s life worth the potential ripples of change that could drastically change that timeline?
Well, yes, it is, because the killer is from Primetime and preying upon the multiverse. It’s Blake’s, along with a cadre of time-travel agent’s, job to stop them.
When Blake arrives a week before the death of that six-year-old boy, his task is to find the killer before the killer can carve up the boy. Blake stakes out potential suspects using 1970’s technology and his instincts. He gets close, but he’s running out of time. He does the one thing that he shouldn’t – contact the victim. Together, the boy and Blake manage to allude the murderer. But when Blake returns to Primetime, his superior informs him that the boy ends up dying anyway. More than ten years later in his timeline, he has a fatal car accident.
Did Blake fail or was his death just fate?
Blake intends to find out. In the process, he tells us his own fate and it includes dinosaurs.
We travel with our hero to a futuristic world where Blake and his new partner, Vette, have seven days to thwart another murder. They soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that spans multiple timelines. They fail at saving their target, but they don’t give up. In the third part of the series, they travel as far back as the western frontier town of Brownville in hopes of finding the criminal time-travelers that are unraveling that timeline at the source of their meddling. The two find they are always one step behind the criminals. Blake and his partner try to outsmart the rogue elements, but only after spending a lifetime together do they get close to the answer.
A first person narrative that is steeped in hard-boiled detective language, I fell hard for our hero. For me, he’s a great character. Blake Din is nothing like most modern detectives we see on TV or in our fiction. He doesn’t have a drinking problem (thank goodness!), nor is he constantly chasing skirts. He’s smart, dedicated and does right by whomever he encounters. He’s just a good guy up against impossible circumstances. He wants to set the world(s) right. Frankly, he’s the sort I like to read about.
The pacing in The Cutting Room is quick, but the writing is vivid and poignant. I can’t begin to list all the profound and funny one-liners Blake doled out on a regular basis. I laughed out loud many times and was brought to tears a few times, too. Though his writing is spare, the author packs emotion into every scene. When I got to the end of the story, I just didn’t want it to end. Though there are inconsistency in the plot, don’t let it fret you too much. This is a time-travel story, and what time-travel story makes perfect sense? They just don’t. Read The Cutting Room and enjoy the journey through Blake’s many lives. I promise, you won’t regret it.
N.E. White, January 2014.
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