Time Key, The

London, 1897. Widower Stanley Becker, broken by the loss of his wife and daughter, fails to end his life on Kingston Bridge—only to be handed a mysterious 'Time Key' by a fleeing stranger. Soon he's caretaking a tiny wounded 'vaelie' girl named Lena, dodging shadow-shifting monsters, and traveling through time to revisit the family he lost. As a merchant and his shadow servants hunt the Key's secret, Stanley discovers fate has cast him in a role far larger than himself.

• A failed suicide becomes the doorway to time travel—and a second chance at fatherhood.
• For fans of gaslamp fantasy: a Victorian widower, a magic pocket watch, and a fairy-sized girl hunted by shadow monsters.
• Can you change the past? Stanley Becker tries—and learns the heartbreaking answer.
• A debut novel with a Thumbelina-meets-Time Machine premise, illustrated by the author.

“There couldn't be a better time to begin Stanley Becker's story than at the moment he stood on the frozen stone wall of Kingston Bridge overlooking the river Thames, breathing in the winter night and pressing the icy metal barrel of a pistol to his jaw.”

Perfect for an adult or older-teen reader who enjoys character-driven, emotionally tender time-travel fantasy in a Victorian setting—think fans of gentle, bittersweet speculative fiction.