Cirrus@Austlit

'They'll kill to get more time. She'll die to stop them.

'In a world where each person's life span is limited by law, time is a lucrative commodity that some people will do anything to get more of.

'Fourth-dimension physicist, Dr Varya Galanos, invented the technology that time thieves used to murder children by stealing their remaining years of life. Although it was destroyed 10 years ago, and the thieves brought to justice, she still suffers from the burden of guilt.

'Masquerading as a lowly lab technician at the Minor Miracles Foundation, Varya finds a certain peace searching for cures for rare childhood diseases, like the one which took her 4-year-old son, Kir, away from her.

'The Foundation is secretly funded by Varya and her employee and confidante, Marisa Volkov, by selling illicit time tabs to wealthy patrons. When dissolved on the tongue, a single time tab grants a person four extra hours in their day.

'The time tab technology is highly valued - and highly illegal - in a society where Time Chips are inserted into each child's brain stem at birth. Lives are limited to just sixty-five years to conserve the planet's ever-dwindling resources.

'Varya's tenuous peace is shattered when children start disappearing again. She fears the worst - that the time thieves have returned and have somehow resurrected the technology to steal precious years from children.

'Varya is the only one who can find a way to reverse the time drains and save the returned children. But doing so could cost the lives of those she holds dearest.

'When her best friend's son becomes a victim, returned with just hours to live, she is faced with an impossible choice.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.