The Time Police Series
A long time ago in the future, the secret of time travel became known to all. Unsurprisingly, the world nearly ended. There will always be idiots who want to change history.
Enter the Time Police. An all-powerful, international organisation tasked with keeping the timeline straight. At all costs.
Their success is legendary. The Time Wars are over. But now they must fight to save a very different future - their own.
This is the story of Jane, Luke and Matthew - the worst recruits in Time Police history. Or, very possibly, three young
people who might change everything.
Jodi Taylor writes:
I was writing a St Mary’s story – sorry, I can’t remember which one – and I suddenly thought, ‘How irritating must St Mary’s be to those whose job is to police the timeline and keep everything on the straight and narrow? How about looking at things from another point of view?’
So I did. And because I like a challenge, I deliberately spent a couple of books making the TP as unpleasant
as possible just to see if I could bring people around to regarding them as sympathetic characters. Well – most of them.
There have always been idiots who want to change history. But now temporal tourism is on the rise.
Highly illegal, highly risky - and highly lucrative.
The Time Police despatch their toughest undercover agents to take out the perpetrators. Then the unthinkable happens. Replacements are needed fast and who better than three young officers who
barely look the part?
Step forward Team Weird - Luke, Jane and
Matthew. They might still be in training. Their methods might be unorthodox.
But, as the Time Police face their greatest ever threat, Team Weird might be
their only shot at survival.
Jodi Taylor writes:
I don’t normally remember when various ideas occur to me but I do for this one. I was in Derby at the time so blame Derby – I do. I spent a happy afternoon thinking criminal thoughts – don’t blame Derby for that – that was all me – and coming up with some very nasty people.
Of whom we may not have seen the last …
Life is good for Team Weird, now heroes and fully fledged Time Police officers. Luke can't wait to bear arms. Jane has a date. And Matthew still hasn't had his hair cut.
But Time waits for no one and neither do criminal masterminds. A major threat to the Timeline is looming, one far deadlier than mere idiots who want to change history. And when a familiar face becomes a Very Important Lead, will conflicting family loyalties spell trouble for Team Weird?
One missing. One guilt ridden. And one facing the end of their Time Police career before it's even begun. Not so good then, after all.
Jodi Taylor writes:
This story came about because I had a sudden picture in my head of a couple of very nasty TP officers
watching Jane walk past, all full of new-found confidence after Team Weird’s recent success, and one turns to the others and says, ‘Fancy some fun, boys?’
The whole book was written around that scene.
And, of course, there’s THAT
DATE …!
Twenty-four hours is a long Time in the Time Police.
When a fateful mission to apprehend a minor criminal selling dodgy historical artefacts goes very wrong, Commander Hay faces the longest day of her career.
An officer is attacked within TPHQ. A prisoner is murdered. And investigations are about to lead to the one place where no officer can legally tread.
Worst of all, trouble is brewing for Luke, Jane and Matthew as a shocking revelation threatens to tear Team Weird apart for good....
Jodi Taylor writes:
I did enjoy writing this one. Particularly having Varma and Max work together. Not a partnership made in heaven but somehow it works. I was quite amazed neither shot the other.
However, I really enjoyed bringing the two of them together so who’s to say that will never happen again …
A ghost train, lost in Time, hurtles through the night...
Two members of Team 236 are trapped on board. Not ideal under any circumstances but catastrophic when they're at each other's throats.
Hot on their heels, but never quite able to catch up, can Lt Grint and his team overcome all obstacles in their way and save their fellow officers before the train disappears for good?
Nor is TPHQ without its own problems as Matthew
risks his sanity to track them through the Time Map. And a Mikey-experiment goes horribly wrong, exposing something better left concealed for all Time.
What are the Time Police hiding?
Jodi Taylor writes:
Such a lot of research for this one. Pages of it everywhere – and I didn’t use most of it which is just typical. The Zanetti Train is great fun – check it out. Especially now Captain Farenden has re-written the legend.
And Jane and Grint – will Romance occur?
It all begins when the Time Police hold their first Children's Christmas Party. Their most dangerous
mission yet . . .
No good deed ever goes unpunished. Lt Grint
succumbs to his softer side and soon lives to regret it. The combination of bubble universes, candy floss, a small boy, a toad named Mr Fluffy, Mount Fanboten, £6.5 million, and a love-struck Officer Lockland are all hard enough to believe, but imagine a situation so dire that only Officer Parrish can save the aforementioned Grint from a lengthy stay in prison. At least, he can - but will he?
And, most unlikely of all, has Commander Hay's long-suffering adjutant finally experienced the first faint stirrings of romance? Is such a thing even possible?
Jodi Taylor writes:
Here’s another story that got away from me. I had no idea what it was going to be about when I started it. There would be a children’s Christmas party – subject to Time Police rules, of course. Eating by numbers, strict discipline to be maintained at all time, no cheating during the three-legged race – all that sort of thing. Well – I think we all knew how that would turn out. But, as Max is fond of saying, ‘Nothing happens in isolation. Everything is connected to everything else.’
I hope this story is a fine example of how one disaster can lead to another and before you know where you are it’s the end of the universe and how will they keep Lt Grint out of prison?