The Killing Time

The instant Sunday Times bestseller

EVERY SECOND COUNTS. EVEN CENTURIES APART. A TIMELESS DETECTIVE. THE COLDEST CASES. MEET ALI DAWSON.

'Warm and engaging characters and a wildly brilliant story wittily told' Ann Cleeves

'Truly wonderful, wildly atmospheric' Marian Keyes

'A thriller that is full of zest and joy' Nicci French

Ali Dawson is a police detective who leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel to the distant past to solve them. But Ali and the team haven't been allowed to time-travel ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London.

To distract herself, Ali looks into a present-day case - an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. She believes the death is linked to a psychic medium called Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Ali goes to one of Power's shows where he claims to be in contact with Jones.

When Ali notices that evening that her cat, Terry, has gone missing, she decides to go back in time just long enough to prevent Terry from escaping through his open cat flap. A dangerous plan which backfires, and she finds herself once more in Victorian London, where she meets Jones, as well as Power . . .

'Elly Griffiths has done it again. Warm, witty and outrageously believable' Sarah Hilary

'Ali Dawson is a delight - a detective you'll want to spend more time with' JP Delaney

'Ali Dawson could be the most fun time-travelling detective since Dirk Gently' Chris Brookmyre

A Sunday Times bestseller w/c 16 Feb 2026