Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Michael wakes early every morning. He often doesn’t need an alarm clock as his internal clock is always set the same. However, upon waking one morning, he looked at his bedside alarm clock and noticed that it read 15:74. It was morning, he knew that for a fact. On the twenty–four-hour clock, 15:00 would be 3 in the afternoon. That was strange in itself, but 74? With only 60 minutes in an hour, 74 just didn’t make sense. By the time he was fully awake, Michael decided to compare the time to his other devices, only to confirm what he suspected, that it was only half past 5 in the morning. Being the logistical scientist that he was, Michael started to take notes as the bedside alarm clock proceeded to count forward. After rushing out to help his new neighbors move in, he returned to find that the clock was doing something even more strange: it was counting backwards.

As a pediatrician, Michael had seen his share of strange things. But the backwards counting clock? He was called to work on his day off to check on a patient. The young girl’s blood work had returned and was showing high amounts of lead poisoning. Deductive thinking once again helped the doctor think through the dilemma of the source of this lead. After enjoying tea with the patient’s teddy, he came to the conclusion and the source. But that didn’t solve his problem with the clock that was continuing to count backwards.

In Michael, Valerie Albermarle has written a fascinating twist on paradoxes and probable impossibilities, based on the distinct theme, if one could turn back the clock, what would they do differently. It is a classic tale based on the 'what if' scenario. Michael, the protagonist, is presented with this interesting paradox and his response, as it unfolds, is an interesting study on character development. The depth and intensity of this story’s plot depends entirely on the protagonist’s own development. Very cleverly done.