Death Rang the Bell

by Carol Pouliot

Published by Level Best Books Cover art by Ella Smith

Time Travel Mystery Novels were outside my comfort zone, until I read Carol Pouliot’s first offering, Doorway to Murder, a skilful blend of cozy police procedural and science fiction. Since then I’ve read Threshold of Deceit and Death Rang the Bell, her latest offering, and now I can’t wait for the next installment of this fascinating fusion genre.

Pouliot’s timing in creating the Blackwell and Watson time-travel mystery series is pure perfection. Each episode not only sparks the imagination they rekindle baby-boomer generation memories. The subtlety and care with which she paints the word pictures brilliantly portrays history, mystery and love.

Olivia Watson, a 21st century journalist, has discovered her house possesses a very special quirk, a fold in the space/time continuum situated within the doorway of her bedroom. She need only step across its threshold to visit with Detective Steven Blackwell, owner of her house in the year 1934.

You will be transported to a time of the “Great Depression, the dust bowl of the “Dirty Thirties”, the invention of the atom bomb, the emergence of Adolf Hitler, Babe Ruth’s farewell to baseball, and the first appearance of Donald Duck. It was a time of despair and a time of hope.

It is Hallowe’en and Olivia and Steven had just attended a party when a shot is heard. Steven answers the call of duty as he rushes toward the danger. Meanwhile, Olivia witnesses the murder suspect fleeing the scene. Did the killer happen to see Olivia watching from the upstairs window? Could she be in danger? The dynamic duo of Blackwell and Watson join forces once again to apprehend the killer.

Tension builds as Olivia is confronted with an unexpected moral dilemma and time travel paradox.

Carol Pouliot is brilliant at creating a sense of realism so powerful you will feel the cold, dampness of fall and take pleasure in the burnished copper, crimson, caramelised bronze and honeyed old gold of autumn leaves. She truly is a master of her craft.

“Doorway to Murder” challenged my purist notion that you can’t mix science fiction with a good mystery. Carol Pouliot has risen to the challenge and without doubt, taken the genre to a new level. I can’t wait to discover where Olivia’s and Steven’s experiments in time travel take them not to mention what new mystery Steven will be embroiled in.