I always look forward to picking up a new novel from Ben H. Winters as I am guaranteed an intelligent, quirky and unique-to-the-point-of-absurdity experience. With his latest release, I am pleased to report that he does not disappoint. The book provides science fiction, suspense and time travel, all wrapped up inside a brilliant mystery.

BIG TIME opens with Allie Zerkofsky being driven at a high rate of speed by a female driver she does not know and who is not answering any of her questions. This strange woman may have kidnapped her while she was at the playground with her daughter, Rachel, who she fears was abducted by an equally strange man.

"[A]ll of the principal characters --- as well as some interesting outsiders --- will converge in a finale that is nothing short of mind-blowing. BIG TIME may be the most ingenious work of Winters’ career."

This is quite the start to a mind-trip of a novel that literally takes you by the throat on page one and never lets you breathe for a moment until all the answers are revealed. During that initial frantic car ride, Allie begins to clutch her chest and fall over squealing in apparent agony. This causes the distracted driver to go off the road and crash the vehicle. Allie recovers and jams a piece of shattered glass from a damaged window into her abductor’s eye before running off into the dark woods.

The storyline then shifts to Grace Berney, who works for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Her boss asks her to look into a call he received from a medical center in Baltimore. They have a “Jane Doe” patient who seems to have some sort of medical port in her chest that has never been seen by anyone on staff before. Of course, Jane Doe turns out to be Allie, and at this point Winters seamlessly aligns the dual plots while still maintaining an air of mystery. The doctor treating Allie asks why she has a portacath in her chest. She claims to know nothing about it and asks why they put it in her. Allie flees the medical center to find answers, as well as her missing daughter.

Meanwhile, Grace’s research leads her to an article in the Journal of Applied Metaphysics written by Dr. C. P. Stargell. It discusses the portacath in question while also outlining a groundbreaking new discovery involving the folding and borrowing of time itself. Grace is now even more confused than she was when she was first given the case. Suddenly, she is intent on rising above the typical boredom of a job she usually hates to follow this bizarre story and see how it matches up with Allie.

Allie ends up in a neighborhood that is familiar to her and goes up to a house she recognizes. The resident, Missy, sees her and blurts out, “You look just like her.” Further discussion reveals that Missy had a good friend who was killed 10 years earlier in a hit-and-run accident and looked exactly like Allie. This revelation hits Allie hard. She begins to struggle with her present identity and unexpected memories that start flooding her mind, which she has trouble reconciling. I told you this story was trippy!

Grace is suddenly pulled off the case and is placed on immediate administrative leave pending an investigation. Apparently, her inquiries ruffled some feathers, and a call was made to a senior manager who took this drastic action against her. However, she refuses to back off and enlists the aid of her troubled but tech-savvy teen daughter, River, to track down both Allie and Dr. Stargell.

It is extremely difficult to say much more about this wonderful story without revealing some of Ben H. Winters’ deviously splendid plotting. All I can say is that, as expected, all of the principal characters --- as well as some interesting outsiders --- will converge in a finale that is nothing short of mind-blowing. BIG TIME may be the most ingenious work of Winters’ career.