48 pages • 1 hour read
Gillian McAllisterWrong Place Wrong Time
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 28-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 28 Summary: “Ryan”
Ryan, now undercover and living in a tiny apartment, reminds himself of the rules of being undercover: Stay in character and never tell anyone anything. He has met his contact in the crime organization, a woman named Angela who goes by the name Nicola and introduces him as her cousin. On his first night, he boosts a luxury car, replates it, and drives it to the Liverpool port, delivering the keys to Ezra. He is in.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Day Minus Five Hundred and Thirty-One, 08:40”
Jen lands in May 2021, the day her father died. As Todd and Kelly banter over breakfast, Jen sneaks a call to Andy Vettese. After initial questions to establish who she is, Andy suggests maybe Jen’s time loop is not about stopping the murder. He tells her whenever she contacts him to use a code, refer to his imaginary friend named “George,” and he will know who it is.
Jen drives to her father’s home. She knows that her father never liked Kelly and that, since their marriage and particularly after her mother’s death, she and her father have not been as close as they should have been. When she sees her father, a “very specific feeling […] of just-out-of-reach nostalgia” comes over her (238). She wants to “stop being alone, just for a while” (245).
Over tea, the two talk about the early days of his law firm, parenting, and children. “It’s hard to have a baby,” her father says (241). Jen, careless, tells her father she suspects that Kelly is into something “dark.” He dismisses the idea. Originally, Jen had not been with her father when he had his stroke. This time she stays for dinner and is there when her father collapses.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Day Minus Seven Hundred and Eighty-Three, 08:00”
It is a year earlier, Todd’s 16th birthday. Jen is in court. Kelly texts her a photo from what he says is a Starbucks. Jen studies it and recognizes the background is the empty home in Salford, and that Kelly is telling her more lies. She has Rakesh run a property search. She discovers the owner of the home is Ryan Hiles, deceased. Rakesh finds no death certificate, and years of records had been destroyed in a flood some years earlier. Jen recognizes Ryan’s name.
That night at a restaurant, Kelly gets a phone call—he says about work—and leaves. Jen thinks she sees Nicola at a table, but when Jen accosts her, she realizes she is mistaken.
When she returns to the table, she and Todd have a heartfelt talk about their relationship. Jen notices how young Todd looks, how happy, how upfront he is with his parents over dinner: “It is before he has learned to bury it all” (258). Jen apologizes for not “being the mum of your dreams” (263). She tells her son how much she wishes she had been a better, closer mother. Todd dismisses the notion as ludicrous. Jen hints at a dream in which the two of them had grown apart and that Todd had killed someone. Todd says: “I wouldn’t have you any other way, Mother” (265).
That night, Jen is awakened by Kelly on the phone downstairs. She walks down to eavesdrop and catches only the last bit, Kelly assuring someone they “wouldn’t want to ruin a twenty-year business partnership” (266).
Chapter 31 Summary: “Day Minus One Thousand and Ninety-Five, 06:55”
It is October 2019, the night of Todd’s science fair. Todd dreams of being something “science-y.” Although Jen had little interest at the time, his science display was important to him. As she meanders through the project tables, she spots Andy Vettese at a booth with the title “WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME,” a display about his work in memory and time. She approaches and uses the code he’d provided. He assures her that time travel is not uncommon, that “[t]ime is just a way of us thinking we are free agents” (276). He tells her to stay in touch.
On the way out Todd offers her a donut, and she remembers she declined because of her diet. This time she enjoys a bite with him.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Ryan”
In three weeks, Ryan has boosted three cars. Ryan finds he is becoming his new identity, and he and Angela (Nicola) are accepted in the gang. Ryan is still haunted by the missing baby. He tries to get information from Ezra about whether the baby was shipped out to the Middle East with the BMW. Ezra assures him no. Ezra says he is going to meet the boss the next day and invites Ryan and Angela to go with him.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Day Minus One Thousand Six Hundred and Seventy-Two, 21:25”
Jen’s family returns to Liverpool from a holiday outing, and are stopped for a random breathalyzer check. Kelly seems unreasonably angry over the inconvenience. This time, Jen notices what she had not originally: Before Kelly gets out to take the test, he drops his wallet between the car seats. Later, Jen retrieves the dropped wallet and discovers that Kelly’s ID is clearly counterfeit.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Day Minus Five Thousand Four Hundred and Twenty-Six, 07:00”
It is December 21, 2007. Jen recognizes the country bungalow she and Kelly lived in when Todd was born. Todd is three. In a conversation with Kelly about his own family, Jen catches him talking about “our father,” which is odd as he has told her he was an only child. When pressed, Kelly simply denies he said “our.” Later, Jen catches him in the bathroom crying. He says he was thinking about his mother.
Jen returns to Todd and the two play with a ball of tin foil. Suddenly, Jen realizes as she looks into her son’s bright eyes that the killing is not her fault, that her son loves her and does not view their relationship poorly. She thinks: “It’s not about me” (301).
Chapters 28-34 Analysis
The novel explores the nature of Time and the Multiverse. Jen keeps asking herself what the nature of her time loops are. Is she being shown her past to change things, or is she a mere spectator? She is cautious not to test her position—she has not tried to play the lottery or bet on sports. She understands that she couldn’t prevent her father’s death or save him, though she was able to be with him, unlike the first time. She believes that in the loop she lacks free will.
The donut moment calls this into question. Jen did not have a donut when she originally went to Todd’s science fair, but this time she does. She has changed the experience, which suggests that she can alter events.
When she plays with three-year-old Todd, the novel moves toward its ending. Here, Jen experiences The Rewards of Motherhood. Her perspective shifts. Instead of blaming herself, she sees that Todd’s killing of Jones is not about her. She also connects with her father. Though she is not able to prevent his death, she changes something just as important: He doesn’t die alone. The novel emphasizes The Power of Love and human connection.
Professor Vettese implies that the novel is not just a murder mystery, but a drama of personal redemption. He tells Jen that something broader might be at the heart of her time loop. Perhaps she is being challenged by her own subconscious to “truly, fully witness” (274). Key to Jen’s transformation is her heart-to-heart with Todd on his 16th birthday. Like Scrooge, she regrets her past and feels in touch with her higher feelings. She feels the maternal love she was convinced she lacked.
Professor Vettese inspires Jen to notice things in a different way. We see this when she plays with three-year-old Todd and observes his eyes “lit with love” (301). She sees things in a way she didn’t the first time. She realizes that she did not fail Todd, that self-blame is an “illusion.”
