Running Time

Running Time is a perfectly crafted science fictionish contemporary horror story that takes place in the past. SPOT, a government project that created a powerful device, the biochip, to send people into different points in time, is defunct. Or is it? There are still biochips in the possession of a small group and a corrupt senator and his goons want to get hold of the weapon. But Nora McKee and her partner Alex Kincaid are determined to retrieve Nora's mother who was "disappeared" by the corrupt institution. And so begins their hair-raising journey into seventeenth century Massachusetts during the notorious witch hunts. The plot to this story is too complex and provocative to outline in a review. You must read it. It is fascinating, enthralling, gripping and one of the scariest books I have ever read. I can't remember the last time I had to put a book down to wait for my heart to stop pounding before I could pick it up again and find out what happened. I think the best description of this book can be found in the words of one of T. J. MacGregor's own characters, Mariah Jones: "Time isn't a river flowing from past to future. It's multidimensional, everywhere and nowhere."

I have been reading T.J. MacGregor since she was Trish Janeshutz,which is about 20 years now and I have never read a book of her's that I haven't enjoyed. As for "Running Time", it had me on the edge of my seat and I had to take time out's just to catch my breath! I am sure hoping that she will be kind enough to give us more of Nora, Alex and of course,SUNNY! Really a MUST READ!

Macgregor has done it again....This book made me so anxious to find out what happened next that I would put it down for about 5 seconds and have to pick it up again. I always worry about the dog getting hurt but I know they don't in her books. The worlds she creates are so real that I expect to pick up the paper to see that in fact our government has been sending people back in time for decades. As for the witches I am sure I was one so that part brought up my own past lives. If the present reality is too grim for you dive into this book and see how interesting the world could become.

Time travel exists as a fledgling science. People experiment with the boundaries testing how far they can push the past. A government agency SPOT (Special Operational Temporal) filled with black ops were using the new technique to go back in history to dump dissidents, subversives and anyone undesirable in our time. In the 1970s Catherine Walgreen disappeared into Blue River, Massachusetts of 1695. Her daughter Nora, her significant other Alex Kincaid, and four others who were part of the program before turning rogue are in hiding; each has a biochip implanted in them so they can move through time. Powerful individuals wanting to start up SPOT again are searching for the sextet because they possess a vast supply of the chips that the SPOT enthusiasts do not have and desperately need. The six are determined to keep the cache away from their enemies. Alex and Nora travel back in time hoping to rescue her mother and end up in the middle of the witch hysteria flamed by the local preacher. For some unknown reason they cannot revert back to their twenty-first century normal time. When Nora is kidnapped and tortured by the insane preacher, another person form the future on the wrong side of the fight, goes back in time seeking redemption by stopping the pending slaughter. The men, women, and one dog know their lives will never be normal because of what they know, have done, and possess; each understands they will spend their lifetimes looking back over their shoulders. The book is filled with action, extremely complex at times (no pun intended) to track as the plot is far from linear, and loaded with courageous heroes and cruel villains. As always T.J. MacGregor provides an exciting thriller with a cast who are literally RUNNING TIME (also see KILL TIME). Harriet Klausner

Time travel between centuries, led by the reliable golden retriever, Sunny, is the focus of the new novel by T. J. MacGregor. Beginning on Thanksgiving Day 2006 in Key Largo, Florida, racing to Aruba in 2007, with sidesteps in the Monroe Institute in Nellysford, Virginia, and finally to Blue River, Massachusetts in 1695-these are all key places for librarian Alex Kincaid and history professor Nora McKee, to rescue her mother, Catherine Griffin, from the torturous Reverend Walter Chandler, the grand witch-hunter with his Bible-thumping "Laws of Righteous Living." Eric Holcomb, a divorced father and blackballed lawyer, is up to his neck in foreclosure notices and unpaid bills. He accepts a million dollar offer to infiltrate the black ops government agency, Special Operations Temporal (SPOT), that microchips subversives, dissidents, and other undesirables, enabling them to disappear to other times to avoid punishment. The Monroe Institute is the home of SPOT and the incubator where people are taught how to attain altered states of consciousness resulting in time travel. Senator Rick, Lazier, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, works with his cronies to kidnap Holcomb's teenage son as collateral for Holcomb's work, thus eliminating these time traveling "terrorists" and stealing their remaining microchips. Essential to the plot is Sunny, the micro-chipped golden retriever who transfers between centuries to warn and protect, carry cell phones, pocket PCs and PDAs to his keepers, and serve as a distraction and hero for all his companions. The mix of modern-day technology and historical customs makes this story fun to read. The vital aspect of all good time travel novels is to accept that which it is and enjoy the wild ride. Fast-paced and fun, readers will cheer as Sunny leads the way to reunite friends and family. Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommended escape reading.