ARC Review: A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

A Rip Through Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 31, 2022)

Description: In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland―in an unfamiliar body―with a killer on the loose.

May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.

May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.

When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late.

Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong's A Rip Through Time, the first book in this utterly compelling series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.

My Thoughts: Homicide Detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh with her grandmother who is dying of cancer when she decides to take a late-night run to ease some of the stress. She hears something suspicious in a dark alley and goes to investigate. She is attacked and left for dead.

When Mallory wakes up, she finds that she is still in Edinburgh but 150 years earlier than when she was attacked. She finds herself in the body of housemaid Catriona and working in the household of a mixed-race doctor who is acting under the table as a medical examiner assisting the police with their investigations. 

Mallory's main goal is to get back to her own time, but she has no idea how to do that. She decides that finding out who attacked Catriona and why might be a way to get back home. She learns that Catriona wasn't a very nice person. In fact, she was a thief and con woman who was being given a change to change by Dr. Gray and his sister. She was taking advantage of their help to find more opportunities to cheat and steal. 

Mallory gets involved in Dr. Gray's work because it is the sort of work she does in her own time. She uses being knocked out as a reason why her personality has changed so much and to explain why she doesn't know things that a Victorian maid would know. While Dr. Gray isn't very observant outside of his own scientific interests, his sister is much more observant. Most improbably, she believes Mallory when she confesses that she's a time traveler.

The story was entertaining. I liked the characters and the setting. I liked Mallory's fish-out-of-water problem. I also liked the potential for romance with Dr. Gray. I look forward to more stories in this new series since Mallory doesn't find her way home in this episode.

Favorite Quote:

I'm not Catriona. I'm the woman who followed that voice into an alley. 

We're both here.

We both jumped through time. 

Is that possible? What if I'm leaping to conclusions?

Does it matter? Nope, not when this guy -- whoever he is -- is currently trying to kill me.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.