Mystery Time by Janet Hannah

I was excited when I received this book in the mail from the author. I had read the outline in an email and thought it sounded like very interesting. I thought it was a good change to have a mystery novel whose main character was not a police officer or an agent, but a scientist, someone not usually associated with mystery and adventure.

The book started off great, the murder happened right away and they mystery of who killed the American microbiologist started. Alex and Hildegard witnessed the man's last words and were faced with the problem that one of their fellow scientists might be involved. Hildegard's watch was stolen during the murder, and her hunt to retrieve it drives both her and Alex to hunt the killers themselves. With a promising beginning the book looses it drive about half way through, when it is pretty clear who the killers were and the only mystery is how it happened and why.

I was also excited with the promise of an old watch and its special relationship to time as it is described in the outline. But unfortunaly Hildegard is the only character who experiences this, and it is never explained why. The history of the watch is discussed a lot, and it was interesting to read about its past owners and how it was passed among them, but I was disappointed that more was not said about this special relationship to time.

Overall I really liked the characters. Alex is calm, smart, calculating, and can take care of himself. We learn a lot of his past, which made him even more interesting and mysterious. Hildegard is a beautiful, classy and confident women, but doesn't let that define her in the world of science. She lets her intelligence and her work do the talking. They work well together, and I am hoping to see more of them, next time in a bigger and more complicated mystery that keeps me engaged in the story.