I’ve been a fan of time-loop stories—in which a character cycles through the same moment, day, or event—ever since I watched Groundhog Day (like, I’m sure, many people my age). Another favourite example, if not my actual favourite, is The First Fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North—seriously, if you haven’t read it, yet, go give it a try. In May, Minotaur Books are due to publish the new novel by Paula Daly, Versions of a Murder, which looks like a very interesting take on the idea:
Versions of a Murder takes the idea of restarting at the same moment in time over and over, and spins it into a compelling suspense novel about a young woman who tries to catch a serial killer across numerous lifetimes.
What if you had to relive the day of your murder over and over?
Opening on one ordinary morning in 1974, junior doctor Heidi Quick awakens from a quick nap to find herself rushing about her day on a busy hospital ward. When a snowstorm closes in, she accepts a ride home from her senior colleague Dr Fred Preston, only for her night to turn shockingly fatal when Preston murders her in her apartment. Even more shocking is when Heidi wakes and relives that day again.
Heidi becomes locked in a time loop—one that resets not with the sunrise, but with her death. Each time she dies, she wakes again in 1974, memories intact, and haunted by a single unchanging truth: someone she trusts wants her dead. But that someone is a respected colleague, Fred Preston, whose charm and authority mask a darkness rooted in a real-life UK serial killer case.
The repercussions of this reverberate through the following years as Heidi relives versions of her life—sometimes days, sometimes decades—as well as versions of her murder. Soon, Heidi realizes that due to a twist of time and fate, she has a singular chance to both work out why she is being murdered and also determine how she can save future victims and lead a meaningful life. With each iteration, the lines between destiny and choice, victim and perpetrator, past and future blur, as Heidi tries to stop Preston once and for all.
Versions of a Murder is an utterly page-turning, inventive, absorbing and often moving novel, part gripping suspense, part quest for survival and justice, that considers the choices we make in life while also drawing out a cat and mouse story, as we root for Heidi from the start—and again and again and again.
Really looking forward to reading this.
Paula Daly’s Versions of a Murder is due to be published by Minotaur Books in North America (May 4th, 2027) and Wildfire in the UK (May 6th).
Back in 2017, I read an ARC of M. L. Rio‘s excellent If We Were Villains (which seems to get a new edition every few months). Ever since finishing it, I have been periodically checking to see if the author has a new book on the way. And the wait if almost over! 
Due to be published by 
Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Leo Carew?
