Out of the loop A mystery

Siegel (Charlotte Illes Is Not a Teacher) combines mystery, romance, and time travel into a deliciously entertaining tale. Amie Teller, 28, is a frustrated journalist writing about health and science for an online magazine. More notably, she's been stuck in a time loop for more than two years, doomed to relive September 17 again and again. One morning, Amie wakes up to find that the calendar has turned to September 18--and her neighbor, bookshop owner Savannah Harlow, has been murdered overnight. When Amie learns that her 50-something neighbor and friend David is being questioned by the police, she's spurred to investigate, assuming that her familiarity with the events of September 17 will offer her unique insight into the case. To help her sleuthing, Amie recruits David and her ex-girlfriend Ziya, with whom she's trying to maintain a friendship. Though the chronology initially seems daunting as it dips in and out of Amie's time loop, Siegel quickly orients the reader, making it possible to settle in for a well-crafted whodunit and a charming will-they, won't-they rekindled romance between Amie and Ziya. This is a blast. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, Knight Agency (Feb.)

A time loop teaches an aspiring but risk-averse semi-detective just what in life is most worth noticing. Amie Teller has been stuck on the same Sept. 17th for two years: Waking up every morning to the same coffee shop that's always out of blueberry bagels; witnessing the same argument between her friend David Lenski and their notoriously unpleasant neighbor, Savannah Harlow; surviving the same awkward "friend date" with her ex-girlfriend Ziya Mathur, whom Amie maybe wishes weren't an ex at all. Everything is exactly as expected, which is kind of how Amie likes things. So what should she do when time moves and she's free and completely unprepared to live a day she hasn't already rehearsed hundreds of times? Before she can figure out what life even looks like out of the eponymous loop, Amie learns that Savannah was murdered on September 17. Convinced that no one understands the day as comprehensively as she does, she accepts what she takes to be a kind of cosmic assignment: If she can solve Savannah's murder, maybe she can make sense of having lost two years. With David's help, and some assistance and romantic friction from Ziya, Amie sifts through Sept. 17 over and over to find those tiny moments she didn't realize really mattered. By solving the mystery of Savannah's death, Amie hopes to resolve her own questions about whether she and Ziya have potential, or if the time loop has drifted them too far apart. A mystery more successful in its dive into the meaning of relationships. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.