Title:  The Steam Pump Jump (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s #9.6) 

Author: Jodi Taylor

Publisher: Accent Press 2018

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 65

Stars: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series

Not one to let being banged up in Sick Bay stop her, Max has had a brilliant idea. But she needs Markham to execute it on her behalf. The subject of this cunning plan is Peterson, struggling with another bereavement and not doing very well. What’s needed to get him through it is sympathy, sensitivity, tact and understanding.

Step forward Mr Markham, for whom sympathy, sensitivity, etc., are things that happen to other people.

Combine a fanatic from R&D, a head of Security with his own problems, a steam-pump, two historians who can’t even be in the same room as each other, some fractious Protestants and a large body of very dirty water.

Told in Markham’s own words, this is the story of an intervention – St Mary’s style.

This little story was lots of fun, but I’ve decided that the Markham narrated stories are not better than the Max narrated stories. I just really like her voice more. But, we get a fun story involving the potential relationship between Lingoss and Peterson and another fun historical event. I’ll take it!

The Chronicles of St. Mary’s:

• #0.5 The Very First Damned Thing

• #1 Just One Damned Thing After Another

• #2 A Symphony of Echoes

• #2.5 When A Child is Born

• #3 A Second Chance

• #3.5 Roman Holiday

• #4 A Trail Through Time

• #4.5 Christmas Present

• #5 No Time Like the Past

• #6 What Could Possibly Go Wrong

• #6.5 Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings

• #7 Lies, Damned Lies, and History

• #7.5 The Great St. Mary’s Day Out

• #7.6 My Name is Markham

• #8 And the Rest is History

• #8.5 A Perfect Storm

• #8.6 Christmas Past

• #9 An Argumentation of Historians

• #9.5 Battersea Barricades

• #9.6 The Steam-Pump Jump

• #9.7 And Now For Something Completely Different

• #10 Hope is for the Best

Next up on the TBR pile: