A thrilling race back through time to find a cure, The Time Keeper by Meagan Mahoney enlightens readers to the struggles faced by the women who broke barriers in the medical field in the 1900s.

Twelve year old orphan, Malcolm McKenzie luckily has an apprenticeship with master clockworker Jack Alexander, who happens to be the father of his best friend Peter. Peter is battling a life threatening illness and when Jack is found dead, Malcolm is set on a harrowing chase around Edinburgh to find the missing miracle cure to save Peter and discover the truth behind Jack’s death.

Meagan Mahoney has written a non stop thrilling mystery that is incredibly hard to put down. Each twist and turn in the book got me rethinking who was behind all the trouble from Peter’s illness to Jack’s death and the mysterious person that keeps following Malcolm around in his search. It’s a story that will appeal to many, many readers. Engaging text with equal amounts of description and dialogue to move the story along and keep readers hooked from beginning to end.

I love how Meagan Mahoney shares stories of the struggles of women in the 1900s who are breaking the glass ceiling in the medical field. One of the main characters is a “lady doctor” Dr. Fiona MacIsaac and the treatment of her is incredibly eye opening for readers today. We take for granted the access that we have in 2024 today to basically any field of our choosing but the harassment and the jealousy of those who came first really tells the tale of how far we have come and gives the reader a sense of the work that still needs to be done.  I love how the real names of some of the first female medical school graduates are used in the story to pay homage to the brave women who shaped history.

This story was pulse pounding from page one and a fantastic ride back in time to Scotland in the early 1900s to give readers a little bit of perspective. It felt old but new as all fantastic historical fiction should.