Publication Date: August 4, 2026
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Club comes a gripping mystery about time travel tourism and the dangerous consequences which ensue when the privileged make the past their playground.
Mercurial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it’s open only to the very wealthiest.
His company, Tempus Tours, has so far been approved for just one route: a journey back to London in 1941, to the days of the Blitz, allowing the super-rich to experience the awesome sights and sounds of the aerial bombardment of the capital during World War II. It’s a slick operation-routes across the wartime city are meticulously plotted, guides are extensively trained, and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced.
To immortalize his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman, and knows not only that she’s not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past-and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Phoebe must race to untangle the truth-before past and the future are rewritten.
With this inventive, propulsive and genre-bending page turner, the bestselling author of The Club and The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby once again delivers an enthralling tale of legacy and wealth, history and technology with a gripping mystery at its core.
Time travel, once just a fantasy, becomes a marketable commodity for those rich enough to afford a trip.
The visionary behind Tempus Tours, Inigo Frank, is sure enough about the technology that he agrees to participate in a documentary created by Phoebe Hunt. And then the unexpected happens.
Author Ellery Lloyd brings a fascinating dual timeline story to life in Time to Burn. Why someone would want to time travel to London during the Blitz is beyond me, but the author clearly describes the dangerous aspects with bombs flying and fires destroying historic sites.
Phoebe plays a significant role not only because of her skills, but because of her past. She’s also smart enough to realize that unethical time travel will create a ripple effect well into the future. To unravel the mystery, she must make every second count before history is rewritten.
Time to Burn serves up a cautionary tale about putting technology into the hands of an elite group of people with little regard for consequences.
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for the London-based husband-and-wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK), and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. They are the authors of People Like Her and The Club.
