Again and Again and Again: 6 Time Loop Thrillers

This book is for the hard-boiled detective fans out there, even down to the overladen similes and metaphors. Detective One the Gun is on the case to find out who killed Five the No Longer Alive. He’s got a not-so-secret crush on his secretary, Two the True Blue. As he tracks down witnesses and suspects, he realizes something is off about the day. Soon, he realizes that the day is repeating, ending in his own murder. Can he figure out who killed Five the No Longer Alive and himself in time? On top of the time loop aspect, it’s also a satire of the genre.

This book has an interesting twist on the premise. Hisataro doesn’t get trapped in time loops forever. The loop lasts for only nine days, and he has no control over when the time loops occur. It’s annoying, but he’s accepted it. The stakes get higher when his grandfather gets murdered at the beginning of one. His entire family, both estranged and found, gathers at the mansion complex of their patriarch, Hisataro’s grandfather, and everyone seems to have resentments against the man. Can Hisataro figure out who wanted to kill his grandfather, and can he prevent it? Repeating the day is one thing; stopping a murder is another.

Amie Teller has finally gotten out of her own time loop. After spending two years stuck on September 17th, she finally gets to move on. Except her neighbor was murdered the day before. Now she feels like she is the only person who can solve the murder, given her deep knowledge of September 17th. Will it be enough to find the culprit? 

This one has a fantasy twist. Anaïs merely expected to be bored to tears at the anniversary ball at the palace. She certainly did not expect to die with everyone else in a horrible explosion. She definitely did not expect that she’d wake up that very morning only to relive the events. But no one will heed her warnings, and the explosion keeps happening. Now, she’s got to figure out how to stop it and save everyone, including herself.

If you liked the 2014 movie Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, this is the book it’s based on. Earth is under attack by Mimics who threaten to destroy all life as we know it. Keiji Kiriya is a foot soldier who is sent into battle, expecting to die. Which he does. But he keeps coming back to life and reliving the same day. He finds an expected ally in a female soldier with a reputation. Can they change the outcome of the day and maybe the war? 

This is a fascinating twist on the time loop premise. While the other books involve protagonists who find themselves in a time loop, Marsh chooses to live in one. She’s a contestant on the popular show All This and More, where she can return to the past and make different choices in her life. Then, she gets to experience the consequences of those choices before making a final decision. Will she choose to save her marriage, continue her legal career, marry her high school sweetheart, or take a completely different path? But as she plays out different scenarios, weird things keep repeating. She starts to realize that changing the past may not be as simple as the show makes it seem. Can she change her life for the better, or will she make it worse?