Published 23rd July 2026 by Pan Macmillan.
From the cover of the book:
If the past catches up with you, time travel can be murder...
London, the present day: commercial time travel is a reality.
Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman. She knows not only that she's not who she claims to be, but that the woman has every reason to harbour a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that the woman had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?
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For those who have the means, time travel is now a reality, thanks to the controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank. His company, Tempus Tours, offers the super-wealthy the chance to go back in time and witness the past, under strict conditions of course - and currently only as far back as the government will allow.
Award-winning film-maker Phoebe Hunt has been commissioned to produce a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Inigo's life and work, and has been granted unprecedented access to the man himself. Her first day filming gives her the chance to witness the return of the latest group of affluent time travellers, businessman Harry Allen and his family, who popped back to 1941 for a celebratory meal at the famous Cafe de Paris. But when the portal opens, everyone is shocked by what they see - a battered and bloody group of 'tourists'... with one of their party missing.
Somehow, on their way back to the retrieval site, amidst the chaos of the Blitz, Harry's daughter-in-law Sasha disappeared. While the Tempus Tours team work out how they are going to find her and bring her home, Phoebe realises that the woman they know as Sasha is not who she claims to be, and Phoebe suspects she has deliberately stayed behind for sinister reasons.
As Sasha puts her secret plans into action in the past, Phoebe begins to see glitches in the present - ones that eventually touch her own life. Can she stop the ripples before she loses everything she holds dear?
I applaud the way the way Ellery Lloyd (aka writing and life partners Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos) spin timelines in their novels, but I must admit that the last thing I was expecting from them was a bone fide time-travel tale... which is exactly what this is, and a darned excellent one at that!
The story unfurls in past and present, following Sasha's concerted tinkering in 1941 to alter the future; the tragic events that took place in 2007 during Sasha and Phoebe's childhoods at a progressive commune run by Phoebe's father; and the edge-of-your-seat action as Phoebe films her documentary in the here and now.
Weaving between the timelines, the story comes together via first-person accounts from Phoebe and Sasha, interspersed with descriptions of footage and interview transcripts from Phoebe's award-winning 2023 documentary A Complicated Man about her father. With jaw-dropping skill, all the little pieces of the scattered plot combine in a delicious mash-up of atmospheric period piece, dysfunctional family drama, cult-based thriller, compulsive murder mystery, touching love-story, and speculative stunner as good as any Blake Crouch or Michael Crichton novel I have had the pleasure to consume.
And if that was not enough, the Ellery Lloyd duo manage to explore a wealth of thought-provoking themes around money; class; legacy; dodgy corporate dealing; ethics; shame; guilt; memory; deja vu; and that big old chestnut, the fabric of space and time.
I am fascinated by any novel that tackles time and alternate realities, and loved every breath-taking, supremely clever moment of this book. There is scope here for a sequel that I am aching to read too! Quite simply the most entertaining time travel book I have read in a long time!
Time to Burn is available to by now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending me a proof of this book.
About the authors:
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London-based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.
Collette is a journalist and editor, former features editor at Stylist, content director of ELLE UK and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Sunday Times, as well as two travel books.
Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Greenwich.
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