The plot runs along with considerable predictability, but the eighteenth-century episodes are tidily drawn, the twenty-first century efforts to recover the children are engrossing, and the macabre backstory to the dastardly Tar Man is worth the price of admission. Gideon's current employers, a kindly gentry family, are remarkably quick to assist the pair as well, and Peter and Kate's subsequent adventures on the road to London comprise expected complications ranging from encounters with highwaymen, flea-infested lodgings, bad food, worse smells, and uncomfortable clothing, to anxieties about returning home and pursuit by the Tar Man and his henchmen. He offers to help the children make their way to London to retrieve the machine that is their only way back and which was promptly purloined by the heartless, devious Tar Man. Gideon, a reformed thief who is still in the thrall of a nobleman of questionable character, cannot understand the concept of time travel, but there's no denying the evidence before his eyes. They need to bond quickly, since on a trip to Kate's father's workplace, the children have an unfortunate run-in with an antigravity machine and are transported back to 1763.

The first installment of the planned Gideon Trilogy introduces Peter Schock, currently sparring with his neglectful father for a bit of face time, and Kate Dyer, a friend of a friend whom Peter has just met.

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