Time after Time is the first of the Alex Balfour novels. Professional historian Alex Balfour has inherited the ability to dream himself back in time. In these three (chosen as best books of the year by the American Library Association) Balfour finds himself cast into adventures that swirl around some of the seminal events in world history. While his girl friend Molly fights her own battles in the present, Alex struggles to extricate himself from some of history's deadliest dilemmas.

THE STORY

Revolutionary Russia is the setting -- after dealing with Rasputin, Lenin, and other villains, and fighting his way across Russia, Alex finds himself outside the house where the Romanovs are about to be executed. And why does present DNA research show that not all of the family was killed that night?



Chapter 1

The headache was gone. Alex Balfour was lying face down in a shallow trench. The ground was cold and hard and smelled of clay and mold. He had just enough time to lift his head up out of the dirt before the first shell slammed into the earth. A howling rush of air and then the explosion.
The sound, the feel, was like a locomotive falling from the sky. He was slapped up into the air then hammered back as thick clods of dirt thudded down. He tried to burrow into the earth, knowing instinctively that his only protection was to hide his soft body deep under the ground. All secondary thought processes were lost as the shells tracked in on a line that paralleled his trench. His heart was pounding. The terror drew small mewling sounds from him. His brain jammed, allowing only primary thoughts and functions; fear, confusion, survival.
Silence.
His ears rang with it. He flinched as a flare burst high in the air with a flat pop and drifted slowly down, hissing, emitting a cold magnesium light that drenched his limited landscape, coloring it a pale, monochromatic blue.
There were other men lying in the trench with him. They were not moving. He risked a look over the edge and saw…

Reviews

"Riveting adventure, replete with romance and drama." Booklist

"A journey of terror through time...A rousing story...high-action, cossack attacks, and the changing of history." Ocala Star-Banner

"Vivid...something of a historical novel, something of a science fiction novel, partly the story of a son's bitter relationship with his father, partly a romance...pleasingly balanced...with grace and skill." The New York Times Book Review

This is the first of the four time travel novels, known collectively as the Pastmaster Series. All four are difficult to find. While not officially out of print, they are still unavailable at the publisher. Copies can be found in used bookstores and on the NET using the search term Appel, Allen at http://www.abebooks.com