IN ‘Time for Tanechka’, Neil Millington left his hero and heroine washed up on a beach in a small seaside town very like Southbroom, where the author lives and writes.
If you enjoyed his rollicking time travel saga, you will be pleased to know that the adventures of beautiful Tanechka and her fellow time traveller Arthur continue in Neil’s action-packed sequel, ‘In No time at All’.
Of course Tanechka is really the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia who Arthur has accidently transported to the present time and to his little seaside town that is very like Southbroom.
He met the charming Tanechka on a visit to 1918 Imperial Russia, which he undertook with the aid of a magic egg timer.
His mysterious device, which seems to have temporarily stopped time for Tanechka and Arthur, is one of a pair of antique egg timers, both of which have the ability to take their owners backwards and forwards through some kind of a time warp.
Unfortunately the second one has fallen into wrong hands and is put to nefarious uses by academic and cat burglar Dean Winston Peabody, together with his thuggish side-kick, Smith.
In the latest chronicle of the time travellers’ adventures, Peabody and Smith have been ordered by the shadowy Masters Club to find the mystical and powerful Parchment of Life.
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Peabody is obsessed with finding Tatiana Nikolaevna and is also using his ability to travel through time to get his evil hands on her and the fabulous Romanov jewels.
History has written that Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, Tatiana (or Tanechka and her friends and family call her), her sisters Olga, Maria and Anastasia and her sickly brother, Alexei, were assassinated by Bolshevik troops in 1918 – but is history always right?
As Tanechka and Arthur use the egg timer to find out more about the true fate of the Romanov family, their paths cross those of peabody and Smith, at times in rather alarming circumstances.
Then there is young Vassili Kharitonov, Tanechka’s trusted childhood friend and perhaps even her first love. Did he really betray the family who took him in as their own? And where does he fit into Neil’s, convoluted page-turner of a plot?
You will have to read his book to find out.
Neil’s mischievous sense of humour adds sparkle to his imaginative story but it is obvious that a passionate interest in history and a sound knowledge of the Romanov family saga informs his Tanechka tales.
As the story bounces along the reader is educated as well as royally entertained.
The surprising finale doesn’t quite tie up all the lose ends and leaves the reader looking forward to the third book in the trilogy. Neil, you had better keep writing!
His books, published Matador, are available at Ramsgate Stationers or, shortly, through the website www.namillington.co.uk.
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