The general plot is very Torchwood-ish. In 1953, a crate being taken to the Torchwood Institute explodes, killing all but one dockworker named Michael Bellini. Fast forward 55 years later, Torchwood Three find a radioactive source in the Hub and discover Michael Bellini, completely unchanged. Turns out, Michael has begun to involuntarily time travel and has actually encountered each member of Torchwood Three at some point in their lives. So the question remains of what was inside the crate and why there are two mysterious men in bowler hats hunting Michael.

The entire thing read a little like The Time Traveler's Wife, but with less romance and more sci-fi. The biggest draw for me with this novel was that it did so well what the episode "Fragments" gave us. Mainly showing a glimpse into the lives of the team members before they became a part of Torchwood Three. In doing this you get some great additional information about everyone's characters and mindsets. But you also get a very sharp look at how much Torchwood took away from each of them.

One particular favorite was the look we got into Toshiko's life in Japan when she was a very small child. As expected, she was incredibly precocious, even at the age of 5 and I had a slight grin on my face at her enthusiasm for fairy tales. And her interactions with her entire family, but her father in particular sort of made me melancholy for how her life turned out to be so isolated as she got older and Torchwood pulled her further and further away from them. But her interactions with Michael are very adorable and I sort of squee that even as a kid, she was still so razor sharp and talented.

My other personal favorite was the look into Ianto Jones' first week at Torchwood One, where Michael ended up for a brief moment. Mainly because we finally get to meet Lisa before she became partially converted. For all the random insanity, danger and extraterrestrial lifeforms Torchwood deals with, I love how the base in London runs pretty much like any corporate office. Complete with water cooler gossip and days when the most one does is make up a very dull, budget spread sheet. You can read all of this with a slightly wincing eye as you realize that in a few short months, Ianto's relatively unremarkable life is all about to go to hell. His budding relationship with Lisa is so excruciatingly normal and sweet in how average it is that it kind of breaks your heart as you know how it all collapses in a huge ball of fire. Along with Lisa, there's the somewhat startling (at least for me) information that in London, Ianto lived in a flat with flat mates, got regular calls from his Mam back in Wales, and had friends outside of work. While this shouldn't be exactly a shocker, I guess I got so used to the notion of Ianto being so devoted and isolated by Torchwood Three that much like reading his relationship with Lisa with a knowledge of the future, it was sort of painful to read about the banality of his life as you know everything was going to change.

The same really goes for Owen and Tosh as well. There are a series of quick vignettes at the end of the book that show you what each team member does at the end of the case and each vignette is rather bittersweet. It's not so much that anyone is utterly crushed or emo-ing their hearts out about where their lives have gone, but you get a strong sense of how much damage and repair everyone has gone through over the years.

All in all, the plot and ultimate solutions weren't bad. But the real delights of this novel was getting more dimensions to everyone's characters.