Time Conjurer was written by Michael Kennedy and published by Book Baby in 2023. You can purchase it on Amazon/Kindle and you can visit the author on Amazon and on social media.
I liked the science fiction aspect of the tale, but the historical fiction segments appealed to me the most. Congrats to Michael Kennedy!
Kenny Lawson is a Philadelphia psychiatrist who has reoccurring dreams of a girl in an ice cream shop. These dreams of her have been going on since he was a child. These nighttime visions have served as a premonition and one night the little girl is the subject of a nightmare, where she is hunted down and presumed dead. Kenny sees it as a message to him that someone close to him may die. He immediately seeks comfort and advice from his grandmother, Nana, who he sees as wise and important to solving his nighttime issues because she also practices Hoodoo- a spiritual practice created by enslaved African Americans. Nana believes that the girl in his dreams is actually her sister, Delilah, who went missing in 1955. She also entrusts Kenny with a secret that she recently discovered using hoodoo. She is able to time-travel, or "fly" to meet up with loved ones in the past using photographs. Kenny, unable to help himself, decides to "fly" to his childhood to right some wrongs, done by his brother. He's successful in his efforts but Kenny has now changed the world around him and is quickly condemned by Nana. His grandmother demands that he go back and change what he did to his brother but before he has a chance, Nana is attacked by a woman in 1955 who has found out about her time-travel abilities. Nana believes that her sister is still alive and asks Kenny to help her find her. The time period is the Jim Crow south, and the place is Charlston. Racism is thick there and Nana and Kenny are thrusted into dealing with the ugliness and the evils of lynchings, hoodoo magic and vengeful curses. Now they are faced with a growing and frightful dilemma; how do they change the past without changing the future, and possibly eliminating their own lives in the process?
Time travel has always piqued my interest when looking for another good book to read but when you add a slice of interesting history to it, I can't say no to picking up such a book. The civil rights era and all that it means to be human or inhuman resides during that time in our history and we are revisiting the ugliness and hatred today, so I found myself eager to dive into this very interesting story and concept that the author presented. The idea that you could dip your fingers into a picture and go to that time and place and meet up with a loved one resonates with me. I think it would resonate with anyone who holds a cherished photo in their hand.
The author tells a good story, develops his characters nicely and attempts to explain the nuts and bolts of photo time traveling but he doesn't reach his stride until the middle of the book when the plot and the direction of the story really gets interesting and exciting. I liked the science fiction aspect of the tale and the many questions that time travel presents, but the historical fiction segments appealed to me the most. Congrats to Michael Kennedy!
I loved Time Conjurer!
I give Time Conjurer 4 out of 5 stars.
Michael Kennedy is a scheduled guest on The Writers Lounge Blog Talk Radio Show #146 on February 19, 2024.
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