Kelley Armstrong is probably best known for her Rockton series, but her new time travel mystery, A Rip Through Time, marks the debut of a new series. It’s going to remind some readers of Julie McElwain’s Kendra Donovan books, but it’s a different time period, a different setting, and a police detective instead of an FBI agent. There’s room in the mystery field for more than one police officer time traveler.

Three days earlier, Mallory Atkinson had flown from her home in Vancouver, Canada to be with her grandmother as she dies at her home in Edinburgh, Scotland. But, the thirty-year-old police detective is having a hard time coping as her grandmother dies. She takes moments to escape to get coffee, where she accidentally spills her order on a man. She goes jogging where she hears a cry, and thinks she sees a video of a woman being strangled. But, she’s a police officer, and she turns into that alley, only to find herself a victim of a strangler she thinks she recognizes.

But, Mallory wakes up in a strange bedroom, a strange nightgown, and scares a young maid to death. It’s only when she sees herself in the mirror that she realizes she’s in the body of the woman she saw strangled. When she claims she lost her memory, she learns from her employer her name is Catriona Mitchell. She’s a nineteen-year-old housemaid in Dr. Duncan Gray’s home, and it’s exactly 150 years earlier than when she went into that alley. It’s now May 22, 1869 in Victorian Edinburgh.

Mallory believes she’ll only be able to return to 2019 if she can find Catirona’s killer. She’s lucky that her employer is a doctor who studied surgery, but his true passion is the study of the developing science of forensics. And, one of his few friends is Detective Hugh McCreadie who relies on Gray’s studies for assistance in solving crimes. It’s not easy for a nineteen-year-old maid to worm her way into her employer’s confidence in the examination room. And, it’s even more difficult when Gray’s widowed sister, Isla Ballantyne, returns from her travels. It’s not as easy to fool Isla.

As Mallory searches for the man who killed Catriona, she discovers that the victim whose body she now shares was not the nicest person in the world. She’s hoping, though, by finding Catriona’s killer she can find her way back to her own world. But, she doesn’t have the tools she would have in the twenty-first century. And, most of all, she misses her cell phone.

While Armstrong’s book is an engrossing mystery, Mallory recognizes interesting prejudices, including her own. Gray is a victim of racism, while Isla, a skilled chemist, has to hide her knowledge and ability because she’s a woman. It takes Mallory a little time to realize she isn’t more enlightened than the people in the household. Dr. Gray is a doctor with multiple degrees. He and his sister are as educated as they can be in their world. Mallory is from the future, so of course she has has knowledge they don’t have. On the other hand, she’s certainly lacking a housemaid’s skills in 19th century Edinburgh.

A Rip Through Time is an intriguing story with a well-developed cast. By using Mallory as the narrator, Armstrong is able to develop the investigation while showing Mallory’s struggles in Victorian Edinburgh. I hope this fascinating book is the first in a new series.

Kelley Armstrong’s website is http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong. Minotaur Books, 2022. ISBN 9781250820006 (hardcover), 352p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .pdf to review for a journal.