Publication Date: August 20, 2024
A fast-paced thriller by Emmy Award-nominated screenwriter, producer, and director Gy Waldron
Detective Sgt. Kate Flynn of the Santa Barbara Police Department is called in to investigate a gruesome decapitation and homicide. Her first clue comes from a most unlikely source: an Anglican monk and Celtic studies expert.
Brother Thomas has been expecting the hand-delivery of a priceless diary of a fourteenth-century Templar Knight, but instead he finds the messenger has been murdered.
Kate and Thomas are pulled deep into a centuries-old mystery with roots in medieval Europe and branches that lead to government intelligence, the Vatican, and a top-secret private lab where untold powers were being alchemized that could alter the face of humanity forever.
It’s a race against evil to uncover a plot that could lead them to centuries-old treasure-or to their own demise at the hands of a deranged tech billionaire who has nothing to lose.
With parallel quests for the truth taking place centuries apart, and a touch of mysticism, readers will be taken on a suspenseful journey with one twist after another in Twist of Time, an electrifying novel of intrigue and history.
Readers of thrillers and novels of suspense by Dan Brown, Ken Follett, David Baldacci will savor every surprise in screenwriter Gy Waldron‘s fiction debut.
Detective Sgt. Kate Flynn’s world is turned upside down after diving into a gruesome murder. Working with Brother Thomas, a young monk specializing in Gaelic translation, the two must unwind the modern-day murder with a mystery of the past in Twist of Time by Gy Waldron.
Kate Flynn is no stranger to gruesome murders. Being a third-generation detective, she is skilled in unraveling mysteries. When she is called to investigate a murder where all the identifying marks of the victim have been removed, she is in her element. The only witness she can rely on is Brother Thomas, a historian who specializes in Gaelic text. He brings her into a unique world of history, technology, and mysticism. They both must work together to not only solve the murder but also solve a centuries-old mystery before the curse of death follows them, as it has followed so many with this mystery.
I am a big fan of history and adventure. Learning about something you may not necessarily seek out while also solving a mystery and being kept on the edge of your seat makes me happy. The idea of this book was right up my alley, and it started strong. I was interested in the murder that was introduced and curious about how everything would tie in together. But it quickly began to lose steam for me.
The pacing was odd, going very quickly, yet the characters often had very little urgency. Once they had solved the biggest mystery of the past, I was shocked to see how much of the book was still left to go. From then on, it lost me.
The plot was very convoluted, and the author couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. Was this a Da Vinci Code-style action, a psychic and technology Sci-Fi, or just a classic murder mystery? I don’t know because it was all too much.
My biggest complaint with this novel was how the characters were written–especially the women. Most women would know, without seeing the author’s name, that a man wrote the book. Women do not speak, think, or act like the author wrote them. There was also a lot of language that started to grate on me. I don’t mind swearing in novels, but when the majority of language used is derogatory to women, I have a problem.
Finally, this novel would have benefited from a single narrator, most likely Brother Thomas. The twist fell flat to me because you have been in the minds of so many characters, and nothing pointed to the twist they gave. How could you follow this character so closely but not know the twist they gave?
With a little more focus, Twist of Time could take on history while still scratching the itch of a classic murder mystery.
Gy Waldron is an Emmy Award-nominated screenwriter, producer, and director who has written chart-topping television sitcoms, dramas, miniseries, and movies. He has created three network series, including The Dukes of Hazzard, and is known for the action-comedy film Moonrunners, which he wrote and directed. He started his writing career in Hollywood working as a staff writer for legendary producer Norman Lear on hit shows such as One Day at a Time. After an eight-year run with The Dukes of Hazzard, he segued into true crime limited series. He received an Emmy Award nomination for the six-hour limited series Billionaire Boys Club, and wrote other projects, including The Menendez Brothers, Brotherhood of the Rose, Innocent Victims, and The Unabomber. His creative work for theater received an American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) Award. In 2024, Gy Waldron received a Grady Fellowship from his alma mater, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia. Whether writing for screen, for the stage, or for readers around the world, Waldron is widely known for his unique blend of action, comedy, and suspense, always leaving audiences highly entertained. With a background of serving in U.S. counterintelligence in Europe, Gy (a.k.a. Gyneth) has written about the fields of intelligence and crime. Stationed in Germany in the late 1950s, he was on the KGB desk working with captured Gestapo files and monitoring CIC (Counter Intelligence Corps) operations against various Communist intelligence services during the Cold War. Additionally, he worked with American operatives in executing orders from U.S. Command. He draws heavily on his experiences when writing fiction. Prior to his career in Hollywood, Gy worked in broadcast television at WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. There, he was a director of specials, sports, and documentaries. Gy worked on many civil rights documentaries and directed feeds to NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report that focused on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his associates. A native Southerner, he now lives in Malibu, California, in a canyon between the mountains and the ocean where he is writing his next novel, Fugue.
