The Viewing Booth

The Viewing Booth
A Novel by Mark J Nutter

What if history wasn’t fixed, but censored?
What if the past could be viewed like a movie—so long as you agreed to see only what the Authority allowed?

James Whitaker isn’t a detective. He’s just a northerner with a curious mind, a sharp tongue, and a kettle that won’t stop giving advice. But when a chance encounter with the Time Tourism Authority’s “Viewing Booth” shows him something strange—footsteps that don’t match, laughter cut short, and a shadowed figure with a limp—he stumbles into a mystery buried for centuries.

His great-great-great-grandfather Ned was branded a wife-murderer in 1871. The official records are tidy, the verdict final. But the Viewing Booth reveals something different: Eliza, Ned’s wife, was not a victim waiting for tragedy. She was a fighter, a leader, and someone powerful wanted her silenced.

With only fragments of censored history, a retired ethics magistrate armed with knitting needles, and a rebellious group of amateur time-tourists known as the “History Potluck,” James must outwit the smiling enforcers of the Authority—especially the unnervingly cheerful Gideon Slade—before his access is cut off forever.

Witty, imaginative, and thrilling, The Viewing Booth is a genre-bending blend of science fiction, mystery, and satire that asks a dangerous question:
Who really gets to decide what becomes history?