{"canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper","locale":"en","author":"Dima Zales","type":"work","modified":"2026-11-06T00:01:26.053104+00:00","data":{"title":"The Time Stopper","author":"Dima Zales","authorUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/authors/dima-zales","year":2015,"heat":4,"isbn":null,"seriesTitle":"Mind Dimensions","seriesOrder":2.5,"seriesUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/series/dima-zales/mind-dimensions","tropes":["criminal-protector","criminal-underworld","dangerous-attraction","dangerous-crime-boss","enemies-to-tentative-allies","enemies-to-uneasy-allies","family-trauma","frozen-time-dimension","hidden-identity","high-stakes-gambling","morally-conflicted-heroine","Novella","power-at-a-cost","power-with-a-cost","protective-crime-lord","protective-older-brother","protective-sibling","psychic-detective","reluctant-killer","revenge-mystery","revenge-quest","russian-mob","russian-mob-underworld","siblings-at-odds","ticking-clock-powers","Time Travel","time-stop-mind-dimension","time-stopping-powers","undercover-investigation","underground-gambling-den","Urban Fantasy","wounded-heroine"],"summary":"From a New York Times bestselling author comes a novelette in the Mind Dimensions series. This short story does not require you to have read the other books in the series.\n\nI can stop time, but I can’t change anything.\n\nI can access memories, but not far enough.\n\nMy name is Mira, and my life is about finding the Russian mobster who killed my family.","pitch":"The Time Stopper by Dima Zales is a 2015 romance. Tropes: criminal-protector, criminal-underworld, dangerous-attraction, dangerous-crime-boss, enemies-to-tentative-allies, enemies-to-uneasy-allies, family-trauma, frozen-time-dimension, hidden-identity, high-stakes-gambling, morally-conflicted-heroine, Novella, power-at-a-cost, power-with-a-cost, protective-crime-lord, protective-older-brother, protective-sibling, psychic-detective, reluctant-killer, revenge-mystery, revenge-quest, russian-mob, russian-mob-underworld, siblings-at-odds, ticking-clock-powers, Time Travel, time-stop-mind-dimension, time-stopping-powers, undercover-investigation, underground-gambling-den, Urban Fantasy, wounded-heroine. Heat 4/5. Book 2.5 of Mind Dimensions.","publisher":"Mozaika Publications","ownRecap":true,"englishUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper","chapters":[{"n":2,"title":null,"summary":"Mira infiltrates a high-stakes poker game with dangerous Russian criminals, using her psychic ability to Split into the Mind Dimension—a frozen alternate reality where time stops—to secretly view her opponents' cards. While navigating the smoke-filled room, her consciousness is hijacked by a traumatic memory: the car explosion that killed her parents when she was a child. As she relives her mother's final moments through the Reading process and her father's last words, Mira confronts the guilt of her power's limitations. When she returns to the present, her grief hardens into resolve. With her limited Depth draining, she abandons caution and prepares to use her abilities to interrogate the men in the room, determined to find who planted the bomb that destroyed her family.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper#chapter-2"},{"n":3,"title":null,"summary":"Mira infiltrates Victor’s underground casino in the Mind Dimension to find a bomb-maker by Reading the memories of suspicious patrons. Her limited Depth—consumed at double speed—forces her to triage targets quickly. She reads Shkillet, discovering a violent plot against her life and a hidden weapon, then investigates Victor, a tattooed thief-in-law whose traumatic past in Chechnya makes him an unlikely suspect. Though drawn to Victor’s danger, Mira resists distraction, conserves her remaining Depth, and secures a hidden advantage before returning to her body. As she exits, her casual remark about bombs startles the real-world players, leaving the threat of Shkillet’s impending attack and the identity of the true bomber unresolved.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper#chapter-3"},{"n":4,"title":null,"summary":"Mira dominates a high-stakes poker game by secretly Reading her opponents' cards, draining her limited Depth to secure her winnings before Victor's enforcer Shkillet grows dangerous. Rather than flee, she lures the predatory thug into a secluded bathroom, arming herself with a hidden firearm and turning their confrontation into a brutal fight for survival. After incapacitating him, Mira faces the moral abyss of whether to end his life, only to be interrupted by a security guard whose presence forces her to abandon the execution. Haunted by her brother Eugene's belief that she couldn't kill, and unable to pull the trigger despite every justification, she flees the scene with the weapon still in her possession. Driving home through the adrenaline haze, she collapses into bed only to be tormented by a recurring nightmare of suffocation, leaving her questioning whether she has the ruthlessness required for the battles ahead.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper#chapter-4"},{"n":5,"title":null,"summary":"Mira wakes to her eighteenth birthday with her brother Eugene, whose culinary 'algorithm' produces inedible pancakes but whose fierce concern over the bruises on her arm sparks a violent argument about her dangerous lifestyle. Storming out to reclaim a semblance of normalcy, she moves through yoga, sushi, and a Brighton Beach boardwalk stroll before changing into a dress for a night of clubbing. There, a charming stranger buys her drinks and dances with her, the evening's momentum building toward intimacy until a hulking bouncer intervenes and escorts her alone to a private room where Victor and a vengeful Shkillet await. With her parents' unsolved murder still driving her investigation into the Russian mob and the mind-controlling Pushers, Mira's birthday celebration collapses into a trap that leaves her cornered by the very monsters her brother warned her about.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper#chapter-5"},{"n":6,"title":null,"summary":"Mira faces a life-or-death interrogation in Victor's private club room when his volatile lieutenant Shkillet accuses her of being a police informant. Cornered and threatened with a blade, she deftly uses her psychic gifts—Splitting into the Mind Dimension to freeze time and Reading minds—to dodge a fatal lunge. The confrontation escalates when she exposes Shkillet's vicious lies about Victor's mistress Vera, provoking the henchman into a desperate attack. Victor intervenes with lethal force, ending the threat with a single shot, then unexpectedly offers Mira his protection and medical care. Despite the reprieve, she recognizes she remains under scrutiny and resolves to flee Brooklyn for Atlantic City, planning to heal her wound and reunite with her brother Eugene before the danger catches up.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/the-time-stopper#chapter-6"}]}}