Expiration Date: 08/03/15

Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski is set in a specific neighborhood of Philadelphia, one that in the present has fallen into disrepair but was a thriving working class neighborhood in the 1970s. The buildings though are rent controlled, and down on his luck Mickey Wade has moved into his grandfather's apartment while the old man is in the hospital.

And while he's there, he stumbles upon the ability to travel back in time to his childhood, back before his father is brutally murdered by a local kid, now locked up in a nearby institute. So questions arise: is this time travel real? Can anything be done with it? Is it bad for Mike's health?

What unfolds is a murder mystery and time travel story that flips between the past and the present. It's thematically similar to Clannad and Clannad After Story, the U.S. version of Life on Mars (minus the last episode), and The X-Files. It's not as hardcore a time travel story as The Man Who Folded Himself or The Man in the Empty Suit.

Five stars

Comments (0)