A Rip Through Time

Finished January 8

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

This book is the first in a series and one that definitely has me wanting more. 

Mallory Atkinson is a Vancouver homicide detective. As the story begins, she is in Edinburgh at the bedside of her dying grandmother. She takes breaks from time to time to vent her grief through distraction and activity. She goes for coffee or for a run. 

One evening, on a run, she hears a noise that might be someone in distress, and finds herself fighting off an unknown assailant in an alley in Old Town. She loses consciousness and awakens in a bed in a townhouse in New Town. She soon discovers that she is now in the year 1869 and seems to be in the body of a housemaid, Catriona Mitchell. She has no idea how this happened or how to return to her own time. 

As she learns her surroundings, she discovers that she has been lucky in the household that she has ended up in. The master of the house, Duncan Gray, is a trained doctor with a strong interest in forensics and a business as an undertaker. He is also a man of colour, and thus faces discrimination and barriers. The mistress of the household, Isla Ballantyne, his sister is a forthright intelligent woman with a scientific bent of her own. As she finds out more about the real Catriona, she is less impressed. The girl seems to have a criminal mind and bad judgment. 

Mallory, in Catriona's body, soon finds herself drawn into the cases that Duncan, with the help of his friend police detective McCreadie. Not only may she be able to help, it may relate to her own story and time. 

I really enjoyed getting to know Mallory and Isla. The male characters of Duncan and McCreadie are starting to be developed more towards the end of the book, and I look forward to seeing more of them. Mallory is an interesting character, intelligent and curious. She longs to return to her own time, and worries about whether Catriona is in her body, and if so, what havoc she is creating. She can't help but be interested in what is happening where she is though, and trying to learn more and help without creating ripples that may cause things to change in time. 

Definitely a page turner.