The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart is part science fiction, part locked-room mystery, and part crime noir.
The main character, January Cole, once worked for a law enforcement agency dedicated to protecting time. She's traveled so much, however, that she's in the second stage of a temporal crisis that makes it nearly impossible for her to tell the difference between the current reality, the past, and the future.
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| Image via Indianapolis Public Library |
She now works as the head of security at an establishment affectionately known as "The Paradox Hotel." It's a waypoint between wealthy travelers and the Einstein Intercentury Timeport--essentially an airport for time travelers. That's right, time travel is possible in this world as long as you're rich enough to take advantage.
Jan, as jaded and hardboiled detective as any, goes about her daily business to keep the hotel safe and the patrons as happy as possible (although she herself doesn't care much if the patrons are happy).
When she flashes forward to a locked hotel room with a body inside, well, the game's afoot. She has to figure out who the dead guy is, where he came from, and how she's connected to all of it. Oh, it's also possible the whole thing could be a time-shifted fiction created by her less-than-anchored-to-the-present mind. Along the way, she'll encounter sniveling guests, confront personal trauma, grapple with sudden time shifts, and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to upend everything she thought she knew.
It's an enjoyable enough read, although Jan is so sarcastic and competent (and considers everyone around her completely incompetent) that she registers more as a trope than a character sometimes. I didn't mind it--I've encountered plenty like her in fiction--but her cavalier attitude, constant quips, and unrelenting cynicism can become grating. A clever, sharp sense of humor helps keep things going.
From a character standpoint, it all works out in the end, as Jan sees some much-needed (and much-appreciated) personal growth. The plot is thick with mystery and high-concept ideas that are intriguing enough to keep you going, and I'll rarely criticize a book that has characters tracking down temporally displaced velociraptors that escaped containment during an attempted smuggling operation.
