The Killing Time Synopsis
The instant Sunday Times bestseller
EVERY SECOND COUNTS. EVEN CENTURIES APART.
A TIMELESS DETECTIVE. THE COLDEST CASES. MEET ALI DAWSON.
'Warm and engaging characters and a wildly brilliant story wittily told' Ann Cleeves
'Truly wonderful, wildly atmospheric' Marian Keyes
'A thriller that is full of zest and joy' Nicci French
Ali Dawson is a police detective who leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel to the distant past to solve them. But Ali and the team haven't been allowed to time-travel ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London.
To distract herself, Ali looks into a present-day case - an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. She believes the death is linked to a psychic medium called Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Ali goes to one of Power's shows where he claims to be in contact with Jones.
When Ali notices that evening that her cat, Terry, has gone missing, she decides to go back in time just long enough to prevent Terry from escaping through his open cat flap. A dangerous plan which backfires, and she finds herself once more in Victorian London, where she meets Jones, as well as Power . . .
'Elly Griffiths has done it again. Warm, witty and outrageously believable' Sarah Hilary
'Ali Dawson is a delight - a detective you'll want to spend more time with' JP Delaney
'Ali Dawson could be the most fun time-travelling detective since Dirk Gently' Chris Brookmyre
A Sunday Times bestseller w/c 16 Feb 2026
About This Edition
Elly Griffiths Press Reviews
Praise for Elly Griffiths' The Frozen People - Book 1 in the Ali Dawson Mysteries:
'A five-star start to a dazzling new series . . . Smart, original and utterly masterful' Janice Hallett
'A pleasure from finish to start' Anthony Horowitz
'Fresh and exciting with both humour and thrills, Griffiths' first book in her new series knocks it out of the park' Shari Lapena
'A new book by Elly Griffiths is always a cause of delight, and this series promises to broaden our horizons. Ali Dawson will capture readers' hearts the way Ruth Galloway did' Mick Herron
'In The Frozen People Elly Griffiths brilliantly makes the unbelievable believable - a tour de force' Peter James
About Elly Griffiths
Elly Griffiths is a multi-award-winning author and a No 1 bestseller. She has written twenty-six crime novels for adults; four for children, and a volume of short stories. Her books for adults include the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series.
Elly’s many accolades include the CWA Dagger in the Library, the Edgar Award and the Fingerprint Award for Crime Novel of the Year, as well as being shortlisted multiple times for the Theakston’s Award. The Frozen People is the first in a new series starring Ali Dawson, a time-travelling detective.
Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband and their cat, Pip.
Below is a Q & A with this author.
If you were stranded on a desert island and could take one crime novel, one DVD boxset and one character from a crime novel, who/what would you take?
This is the sort of question I spend a lot of time debating when I should be working! My desert island book is usually The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse as I think that would cheer me up (unlike Ruth I don’t like solitude). But crime novel? It would have to be The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. DVD boxset would be The Office (US version) and the character would be Charles Paris from Simon Brett’s novels as at least we’d have a laugh – and a drink.
Photo Credit: Sara Reeve
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party and what would be on the menu?
I’d invite Clive Stafford-Smith, Marcus Brigstocke, Bruce Springsteen, Germaine Greer and Jilly Cooper. We’d eat Italian food ideally cooked by my late Nonna (it is a dream after all).
What is your favourite line from a film/TV series/book?
It’s a few lines but Flora Poste’s telegram in Cold Comfort Farm. ‘Worst fears realised darling. Seth and Reuben too. Send gumboots.’
If you could write a book with any other crime or thriller writer, who would you choose and why?
I’d have great fun with Lesley Thomson, David Harrison (Tom Bale), Jim Kelly or Alison Bruce. Alison, Jim and I have talked about our fictional detectives meeting as our books are all set in the Cambridge/King’s Lynn area. They’d probably all hate each other too which would make for a fun read.
Who is your favourite onscreen detective?
I really like Jackson Brodie (Jason Isaacs) but my favourite is probably still David Suchet as Poirot.
If your book was being made into a film or a TV series, who would you want to play the lead character?
Ruth Jones or Eva Myles. She’d have to become Welsh but it would be worth it.
What crime novel do you wish you had written?
The Woman in White.
What’s the scariest place you’ve visited for inspiration?
The prison chapel in Lincoln Castle.
You are master of cluedo and have any name, weapon and room at your disposal, whodunit and what happened?
It would have to be the Reverend Green as I do like a theological thriller. Reverend Green (who’s a woman) in the library with the bible.
More About Elly Griffiths
