Silent Meridian (The Time Traveler Professor #1)

The flawed first Time Traveler Professor alternate history blends historical and fantastical intrigue with dubious handling of cross-cultural elements. Talented mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a lover of all things paranormal, has learned about a book with the magical ability to bring its stories to tangible life. Believing the book to be key to reigniting interest in his Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, Conan Doyle hires John Patrick Scott, a Scottish concert pianist and time traveler, to journey through the recesses of time and retrieve the book. Scott leaps into the bodies of people in the past, most notably Tomoo Ashikaga, a warrior in feudal Japan, and Jiang Pan Sheng, an imperial scribe in ancient China. Although Crowens attempts to engage with other cultures (and perhaps with the manner in which well-off people in Victorian England viewed other cultures), she treats these characters as a costume for Scott to try on, and the handling of language is clunky and distracting (“ ‘Ashita. (Tomorrow) Hai! (Yes),’ I said”). The quest story is passable, but the cross-cultural elements are terminally distracting. (June)