Last we visited St. Mary’s, grieving Dr. Peterson had his head and heart brutally ripped by by treachery. Miss Dottle, who despite her crush on Tim Peterson, proved herself red-handed in league with Clive Ronan, responsible for spying on Max, that led Helen’s murder and Max and Matthew’s abductions. Poor Tim. He is heartbroken, barely functioning on autopilot.
Max has a wonderful idea to give him someone new, possibly leading to romance, possibly only to friendship. Max recruits Markham to somehow shove Peterson and Miss Lingoss together while on their next jump, back to 1600s and the first steam pump in a castle, before Cromwell’s revolution. What could possibly go wrong?
Of course Miss Sykes and Miss North come too – and get into a fierce argument in public and in the past – and Markham needs to sort them out, give Peterson and Lingoss time to talk, and yes, eat the entire picnic meant for six.
Once more we have the incredibly fun, zany adventures of the St. Mary’s gang, this time with Markham the central character and narrator. Markham likes to pretend he’s stoic, unaffected by much, but we see the truth. He cares deeply about Max, Tim, Leon (and Hunter), and is glad to take on Max’s subversive assignment.
Jodi Taylor creates such characters, alive, vivid, fascinating, full and completely human. Add in a fun plot, good dialogue and the usual historical nuggets (that cause me to visit Wikipedia more than a few times) and we have another winner in this St. Mary’s short story.
You should not try to read The Steam Pump Jump without being somewhat familiar with the St. Mary’s crew and events so far. At a minimum it would help to have read And the Rest Is History and An Argumentation of Historians, Books 8 and 9 in the series. Both books are excellent although more serious and a bit darker than the rest of the series. The Steam Pump Jump brings us readers back to lighthearted fun and is a worthy addition to the series and the lore of St. Mary’s.
5 Stars
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