This book was not what I expected. The premise of a rip in the time continuum, where our heroine was assaulted at the same spot as a young woman precisely 150 years earlier, and therefore swapped bodies (we think?), and suddenly had to figure out how to live in 1860's Scotland, was fun and the author obviously had done her research. But that was actually also one of the problems I had with this story - explanations on differences in the way of life, 150 years apart, became longwinded at times. Another thing was that even after having bought in to the premise of time travel, the way the heroine kept living her life as a 21st century woman, with very little resistance, was ridiculously unbelievable. And then the author didn't even explain exactly how the time travel happened, and whether it could be reversed. The book is the first in a series. It was a entertaining, but also frustrating read - and I'm not sure I'll be seeking out the next books.

A Rip Through Time AUDIO by Kelley Armstrong is no your typical time travel novel. 30-year-old Mallory, a Vancouver police detective, is taking a break from sitting vigil at her grandmother's deathbed in Edinburgh, is jogging when she hears a scream down and alley. She checks and sees a man and a projection (?) of a woman in historical dress. Before she knows it, the man has a rope around her neck and is strangling the life out of her. The next thing she knows, she wakes up in a totally unknown bedroom, and is thrown into the life of Catriona, a housemaid in a totally unusual home in Victorian Edinburgh. It is then she starts to try to figure out what happened, how she can get home, and how she can survive until then.

Mallory/Catriona is able to put her training to use in her new life as she is in the home of an early forensic scientist, Duncan Gray. At first she blames her changed personality on the bump on her head, but eventually is forced to tell the truth. Duncan's sister, Illa, is a chemist and befriends Mallory/Catriona and they work to solve the murder Duncan is working on as well as what happened to her. It is a wonderful read (listen) as Mallory attempts to adjust to her new situation, which could be worse. There are all kinds of subplots and twists and turns that make this book a must read.

Kate Handford is the narrator and although I wasn't enthralled at first, I came to enjoy her no-nonsense narration as it suited Mallory's personality. She was an excellent reader.

I was invited to listen to a free e-AUDIO of A Rip Through Time by Macmillan Audio, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #macmillanaudio #aripthroughtime #kelleyarmstrong #katehandford

What It's About: 2019 - Mallory Atkinson, a detective with the Vancouver Police Department is attacked during her evening jog. She loses consciousness and wakes up in the body of Catriona Mitchell, a housemaid in 1869 Victorian Scotland - a time where an elusive killer is lurking in the dark corners of Edinburgh.

My thoughts: I am just going to say it - I FREAKING LOVED this book! Time travel + forensics + serial killer + police procedural = all the elements I love in a crime/mystery book!

I won't say much about the plot. All I can say is it was twisty, well-plotted and brilliant!

What I loved is how Mallory uses her 21st century skills and knowledge to solve these murders without appearing to be too clever for a woman living in the Victorian era. So there was a bit of forensics, and profiling in the story. And I loved that her boss, Dr. Gray is an undertaker, pioneer in forensic science, and works as a medical examiner occasionally.

21st century Mallory also has to acclimatize to the Victorian era - language, women status in society , the lack of technology and so forth. The author did a fantastic job in contrasting both the old and modern era. As much as I love the Victorian era, I am glad to be living in this century!

I read and listened to this book. The writing was good and engaging with a steady pace throughout the story. Kate Handford is a fantastic narrator! Her inflection and Scottish accent were great! I thoroughly enjoyed both the print and audiobook!

This book was truly The Outlander meets The Alienist! I am so happy that this is a series and I can't wait to read the next book!


Pub. Date: May 31st, 2022


***Thank you Minotaur Books, MacMillan Audio, and NetGalley for this gifted reading and listening copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

This novel takes you on a ride through time with modern day homicide detective, Mallory, as she is dropped back to 1860s Scotland. She must navigate through her new life as a household servant to a doctor struggling to create the beginning what will later become the practices of police forensic science. Mallory grapples with her identity as a modern day career woman, as it is taken from her, and she struggles to retain her value in a time where women very often were overlooked, and powerless.

I loved the characters, the themes of feminism, friendship, battling against racism, and overarching hope. It was even more compelling with the addition of time travel and a budding love story. This is set up to be a series and I can’t wait to find out what happens to Mallory next! Thanks to NetGalley for my advanced audio copy. The narrator is fantastic!

Time travel romance: for me, it is as close to contemporary fantasy as I can get for my preferences and still read about a fantastical world, especially for main characters who travel back to the past and experience a world to which they have never gone, and to where I have or never gone or could never go, either. I have never read Kelley Armstrong’s work before; I saw this book in my meanderings around the digital book world and read the synopsis. I presumed the book would be romance, as the description pitches it to readers as Outlander (very heavy romance) meets The Alienist, so I assumed there would be some attraction between the two main characters, Dr. Gray and Mallory. Armstrong has also written a long backlist of fantasy romance, so I took some clues from those titles as well. Some Goodreads users (about 5, according to the bookshelves) also labeled the book as romance, so I that's what I though I would be reading. A Rip Through Time is NOT a romance. My expectations were high for this one; I really must train myself not to be caught up in book synopsis fervor when the descriptions try to lure potential readers in by comparing books to past, popular favorites. It mostly never ends well, and I really am tired of being disappointed, like I was after finishing this book.

Mallory, the main character who finds herself ripped through time, wakes up in 1869 in the body of a house maid, Catriona Mitchell. The problem is, Catriona is a bad girl, and Mallory has to struggle through not only adjusting herself to the lack of technological practices of the period but also to the fact that the person whose life she has taken over is not exactly a model citizen. Catriona’s unconscious body was found in a seedy part of town before her very gracious employer rescued her from certain demise (which the author comments would be the only aspect of her assault that would have encouraged a police investigation into the event). Mallory’s trip back in time comes with all the usual tropes of time travel: difficulty with terminology; adjusting to archaic practices for hygiene, toilet usage, cleaning, dressing, etc.; navigating a world where the character/traveler may have nearly no rights or civil liberties; and dealing with having to figure out how to get back to the time period of origin for the character. The only drawback is, the narrative commentary Mallory gives readers on the culture is very heavy-handed and distracting, and does not show but tells the reader, which makes for a very dry read.

For our love interest (not really), the medical examiner extraordinaire, Dr. Duncan Gray, is a medically trained doctor making his way in Victorian Edinburgh as a funeral home director with some difficulty, as he is the bastard son of a middle-class white man and a mother who is presumably (the narrative does not make clear and the characters assume) from India. He is a bit of a Holmesian character to Mallory’s Watsonesque assisstant, though the role of detective and doctor are reversed for this dynamic. While the book is not a romance, there is a connection between him and Mallory—she tends to bring out humor and openness in him as the story moves along. Unfortunately, Gray is a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, and his development unfolds through the characters around him and how they interact with him rather than his own actions and words for the most part. I feel, as this is a first in a series, that there perhaps will be more time for readers to get to know him better in future books. I was disappointed that he was not so fleshed out for this one.

As for the plot, it was not hard to follow, but it was a tad convoluted and fell flat. I got bored very easily early on in the story and had to struggle to keep focused. I feel this most likely was from the fact that the history of the period does not feel organically interwoven into the events of the plot; much of the narration done by the main character is history lesson/info dump. Usually, in a good detective novel, there are small hints and clues with an occasional red herring and some false leads thrown in to keep the reader guessing where the story is going and who the killer/culprit is, but I didn’t feel that was so here. Much of the time that could have been spent developing such elements of a mystery plot was used to observe the surroundings and detail their historical significance and give copious amounts of socio-political commentary.

As for the audio narration, Handford is incredibly easy to listen to and was the proverbial spoonful of sugar that made the medicine go down. About 80% of the way through the advance audio copy, there is a repeat of a couple of chapters (34 & 35) from earlier in the book, which I’m sure will be taken out for the published audio copy.

I was pretty hyped to get this book in advance to review. The Alienist is a great detective novel, and I’ve read Outlander (I liked the first one; the rest get progressively more boring as the series moves along), but this book bore hardly any resemblance to The Alienist aside from the fact that there was a serial killer and exactly NO similarity to Outlander other than the main female character travels through time and the setting is Scotland. Overall, 2/5. Audio narration, 5/5.


Oh, and despite the comment from our MC in the book, not all Americans wear their outside shoes inside the house, and even if they did so, it does not make them “heathens.” Though I do not, I’m sure those who do make up for the practice by regularly cleaning their floors.

My thanks to NetGalley for the advance audio copy, for which I willingly give my own, honest review.

#kelleyarmstrong #aripthroughtime #netgalley #audiobook #lgbt #timetravel #advancecopy

A Rip Through Time is the first in a new time-travel mystery series by Kelley Armstrong. Released 31st May 2022 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in early 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a well written and eminently readable fantasy time travel murder mystery. The main protagonist is an intelligent strong and capable young Canadian policewoman visiting Scotland to be with her grandmother who's in hospice care.

The time-travel aspect as well as the investigation in the past were well built up and executed. I liked the dialogue and the author was good at the period aspects of both dialogue and class behavior as well as social roles. The limits of the period technology, and MC Mallory's internal reasoning are well rendered and believable.

The plotting dragged a bit at the beginning for me and I found myself tempted to skim here and there. It's the beginning of a series, and it's understandable that the author would expend a thorough effort with world building and characterization, so I refrained from skipping ahead. Further on in the novel, I found the mystery itself somewhat linear, but the denouement and resolution were well done and satisfying. There's a Quantum Leap aspect which I enjoyed and the later parts of the book were engaging and entertaining.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 14 hours and is narrated by Kate Handford. She has a rich generic North American/Canadian accent and does a good job of the narration with the exception of the bits of Scottish dialogue, which weren't especially accurate. I've been told that Victorian Edinburgh's dialects are fiendishly difficult, and Glaswegian is worse. It wasn't a distraction and for the vast majority of the read I found her voice quite pleasant and well modulated. The sound and production quality are high throughout.

Four stars. I'll definitely be looking for upcoming books in the series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Quantum Leap vibes, am I showing my age? Yes.
Am I here for this vibe? Also, yes!

Mallory is a detective in modern time and Catriona, a house maid, 150 years apart they are the same spot at the same time...what's happening to them both, oh, well, they're being strangled. Mallory finds herself waking in a different time, in a different body. There is a serial killer on the lose, and it doesn't matter what time she's in, she's a detective and solve this case, she must.

Now, the jumping back into the past, into another body and then solving mysteries is a total QL vibe here. I loved it. You can't think too hard when reading this type of book and just let the journey take you. Suspended belief is a must with time traveling books. A wonderful start to a series and I look forward to the next one.

Once again, I listened to this one as I read along (at times). I feel like I've been lucky so far because all of the narrators I've listened to recently, they've all done such a fantastic job and really enriched the reading experience. (I might be getting too obsessed, I'm buddy reading out loud with a friend and now I want to read to everyone!)

Thank you so much to @minotaur_books, @macmillanaudio, @netgalley and Kelley Armstrong for the review copies!

A Rip in Time is a mystery that involves time travel back to Victorian England. The historical setting made it even more fun to read. I read an audio version of this book and the Scottish accents only added to the setting and my enjoyment of the book. I liked the strong women characters and their roles in solving the mystery. This is the first book in a series and I am looking forward to reading more.

4/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan. Audio for an audio ARC of this book.

This was such an entertaining and fun read. It’s one of those stories where you shouldn’t think too deep into as clues get revealed slowly. Even at the end there’s still one really important question that doesn’t really get answered. I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed Kate Handford’s depiction and narrating style. I think she really brought Mallory’s character and Armstrong’s writing to life.

There’s certainly hints at romance, but this story isn’t about that. It contains more of a murder-mystery vibe in the early days of forensic science and how that all relates to police work. I really like Mallory’s character and the humorous way that she attempts to pull off the old Victorian Scotland language and keeps getting it mixed up with British instead. There are serious themes woven in such as racism, societal pressures, and rebel groups. However, these don’t distract too much from the fun antics and enjoyable characters. I can’t wait to see Mallory figure out more about the time rip and the development of her relationship with others in the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an early edition of the audiobook for review. All opinions are my own.

Mallory Atkinson, a homicide detective, jumps through a rip in time when she is attacked in an alley. She awakes in 1869 Edinburgh to find that she resides in the body of Catriona Mitchell, who was being attacked at the exact moment as Mallory.

Catriona is the housemaid of Dr. Gray, an undertaker who happens to be a pioneer in forensic science. Dr. Gray is helping to investigate the recent strangulation of a young man. Interestingly, there is no inquiry opened into Catriona's attack.

Of course, Mallory can be of great assistance to help Dr. Gray with all her 21st-century knowledge, but how will she explain Catriona's sudden awareness of these things? Mallory also discovers that young Catriona has some questionable secrets of her own. Mallory realizes she is in a race against time to catch this killer.

𝐀 𝐑𝐢𝐩 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 has the great atmosphere of the streets and homes of Victorian Scotland, and I love how Mallory must navigate how to act like a Victorian housemaid. I would have liked a little more romance, but maybe that will develop more as the series goes. As with most time travel books, there are things you just have to roll with, but great characters and a shrouded mystery kept me engaged. I look forward to book two.

Thank you @minotaur_books for this gifted copy. And thank you @macmillan.audio for the gifted audiobook.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2022/06/02/%f0%9f%8e%a7-a-rip-through-time-by-kelley-armstrong/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

I have always enjoyed this author and was excited to start a new series.  I was a little hesitant because time travel is not my favorite thing.  <strong>A Rip Through Time</strong> is where a modern day police detective ends up 150 years earlier.  So the story is primarily set historically.

Mallory thinks she dies but wakes up as Catriona.  She struggles to figure out who she is now and what is appropriate for this time period.  Obviously, women are not police detectives or doing many other things in this time.  There is also the lack of devices we use regularly today.

I found the beginning a little slow, and frankly, felt irritated at the treatment of women.  As the story continued into the mystery and scientific aspects I was engaged and could barely put it down.  Mallory is fortunate to end up in a household with more leniency for diversity and a strong interest in science.   The mystery is fascinating and takes a while to get sorted.

I finished with many remaining questions though this was not a cliffhanger. My questions are more ones as to how things will go on in the series, and what inventions were discovered when. I would have liked to get McCreadie's reaction to everything though.   I am now very excited for more.

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<h4><strong>Narration:</strong></h4>
I think this was my first listening to this narrator.  The voices felt comfortably male and female with some regional accents. I've no idea if the accents are accurate but they sounded fine to me.  I was able to enjoy the performance easily at 1.75x speed.

<strong>Listen to a clip: </strong>
https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/a-rip-through-time-by-kelley-armstrong-audiobook-excerpt?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

An interesting read, it read like a police procedural on TV, which I don't mind. I liked the setting of a Victorian age Scotland and the showcasing of scientific advances as it relates to solving crime. The societal attitudes and expectations were also interesting, and it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The characters were written well and I appreciated the irony of the differences in Katerina's and Mallory's personalities. There were some predictable plot devices used which made some aspects of the story less interesting as I wished it had gone in a different direction, but overall I liked the book.

A great storyline with strong characters, it was so well written. The audiobook was great. I am currently writing the review.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I love this one.. it has a little bit of everything- time travel, detective work, jack the ripper wannabes. The main characters were wonderful, and the narrator did great with this one. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the next one!

Absolutely amazing! 5 stars all around - plot, writing, editing, it's all good

Kelley Armstrong is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! I love how she weaves her storylines and her storytelling skills are off the charts, I mean... This is the start of yet another series by her and it's just as epic as her others. I love how she incorporated the time travel aspect into this one and then we also got the pleasure of the "Freaky Friday-esque" twist of inhabitting another's body! That was definitely a cool idea, and the big reveal was out of left field, of course, because that's how a proper mystery is done! Predictable mystery novels are one of my biggest pet peeves and I'm thankful for the element of surprise we had in this book!

Thanks netgalley for giving me the advanced pdf so that I can share my thoughts and opinions with y'all 🧡

As a sometimes rabid Outlander lover (ok, all the time, I have the scotch thistle wedding ring…), I am a sentimentalist who gives a chance to most any book that even hints at similarity in theme or setting. More often than not they are too fan-fic, preposterous, or outright copycat and quickly land on the DNF shelf. I was intrigued by A Rip Through Time, but went in expecting to be disappointed; this is my first Kelley Armstrong and I admittedly had judged her book by its cover, specifically her other book covers that scream a bit too much vamp romance for my normal taste. Thankfully, intrigue won and I was happily transported to Armstrong’s gothic Edinburgh and cannot wait to go back.
As time travel stories go, the beginning isn’t earth shattering - seemingly street smart big city homicide detective Mallory Atkinson visits her dying grandmother in a foreign city, makes a dumb choice to follow strange noise in dark alleys at night,, and is attacked by the retail-rage bad guy. The meat of the story begins when she wakes up in the same alley and finds it is no longer 2019, and she is definitely not in her own body.
The bones of this tale are a bit formulaic, with quite a few very convenient pieces moving the story forward. The body she lands in belongs to Catriona, who happens to work for the part-time crime solving undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray. The good not-real doctor lives with his widowed sister Isla, who’s social conscience and women’s rights views are progressive before their time. A murder spree has just begun, so she has landed in a scene perfect for her existing skills, despite her being completely unfamiliar with the customs of 1869 Victorian Scotland.
Where A Rip in Time wins is taking a tried and true base formula and not getting sucked into a story that feels like a template. The foundation may be predictable, but the story built on top of it is colorful (a special accomplishment given the setting is creepily gothic and dark), layered, and believable. The setting of scenes is also where Kate Hanford’s narration really starts to shine, with a tone and emphasis that is like a welcoming painting or a creepy gothic build up in all the right places. Her soft comedic timing is also perfect in her portrayal of Mallory’s trial and error moments of trying to find the correct Victorian words for what she is trying to say.

The other place both Armstrong and Hanford both pull out the stops is creating compelling characters that you can’t help but care about quite quickly.
Mallory is a wee bit too lucky in a few places, but overall is perfectly flawed - she is smart enough to keep herself alive and with a roof over her head, but doesn’t just magically fit into a completely foreign place ala Claire Fraser (just because I love it doesn’t mean it’s perfect). Duncan is a bit death-obsessed and socially awkward, but manages to not become the creepy undertaker cliche and is charming in a quirky sort of way. As a 19th century character written by a 21st century female author, Isla’s character could have been overshadowed by modern girl power but she remains a woman with thoughts before her time, but not inappropriate for her time. She’s progressive and giving but also pragmatic, which lends just the right amount of drama to her relationship with Mallory. The slow boil starting between Mallory and Duncan is predictable because it’s always going to be a guy who keeps the girl in the past, but the Mallory/Isla friendship is one to look forward to in future books. I also sincerely hope Kate Hanford gets to bring these voices to life again.
As with a lot of time travel books where the TT is really more of a means to an end rather than the star, my only major issue is the lack of attention to the “how” and potential impacts. Mallory does ponder what must be going on in 2019, where the real Catriona has presumably taken over her life, but this thought causes a pretty minimal level of stress given how much chaos the Victorian petty thief could be causing. She also doesn’t always succeed at bringing her modern forensics knowledge to the past without what should be pretty large ramifications. Every time I read a book of this genre, I think of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 - I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it but if you have, you know (and if you haven’t, you really, really should).
For once, I’m thrilled to be drawn into an Outlander comparison that really isn’t much at all like Outlander. I’m even more thrilled that this is a series debut, because I’m looking forward to spending more time with these unique characters in their mysterious gothic world.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Rip Through Time — A Novel by Kelley Armstrong, narrated by Kate Handford is a fresh new take on time travel fiction. Mallory, a homicide detective, is in Edinburgh, Scotland to be with her grandmother who is dying. She is taking a brief break to go for a jog when she is attacked and tumbles through time, landing in the body of housemaid Catriona who was also attacked - just 150 years in the past. Catriona’s employer Duncan Gray is an undertaker who is the de facto medical examiner for a local homicide detective. His household is overseen by his widowed sister who is also a chemist. Their professions create an interesting dynamic that allows Mallory to surreptitiously utilize the skills of her real profession, especially when it seems that a serial killer has tumbled through time with her.
This is definitely not your standard tumble-through-time and-seamlessly-slide-into-Victorian-life saga. I liked the fact that Mallory was not sure about language and societal norms but that the mistakes that she made were attributed to Catriona’s head injury. Stereotypical perspectives were challenged and the life of a chambermaid was not glamorized making this book quite unique. The female characters were strong, independent and intelligent.
The narrator brought the characters to life in a way that made me feel as though I was walking the tenement-lined streets with Mallory and seeing the dim flickering of the gaslights. She also moved seamlessly between characters, making me forget that there was just one narrator! I will definitely look for other books read by this narrator.
The ending of the book leaves open the possibility of a series, one that I eagerly anticipate. (I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.)

3.5⭐️
A Rip Through Time was a time travel mystery thriller that was a little different than what I was used to seeing. This was about a serial killer and a detective. The rest takes in 1869 Victorian Scotland. It reads like a CSIish
crime novel. This is just book one to what looks like an interesting historical mystery. I didn’t see any romance but maybe that’s in the next book.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and it was narrated by Kate Handford. She did a great job.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

I’ve never read Ms. Armstrong’s work before, but I’m told she has a well-received bibliography. I found A Rip Through Time to be technically well-written but interminable, and I never grew to care much for the main character, Mallory. I seriously considered abandoning the book, but I persevered, only to discover with absolute disbelief that the story DID NOT END but will be continued in a future volume. The scaffolding of a very interesting story was here: a modern-day detective thrown back into 19th century Edinburgh in the midst of a stabbing that took place on the same corner 150 years apart. But the pondering and musing went on and on, and with each chapter I cared less and less. The only thing I really enjoyed was 19th century Mallory’s—now Catriona’s—interaction with Isla, her employer’s half-sister. Godspeed to readers with patience to come back for more; I for one can find better uses of my time.

I am not sure how I selected this book as time traveling plots aren't normally a favorite of mine, but I am glad I did.

The story revolves around a Canadian police officer who gets strangled while visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh. While on a run she is lured into an alley by the sound of a woman, first sounding like she was having fun, then like she was in serious trouble. When she woke up she had become that woman. Historically the woman was a house maid in the time just before Jack the Ripper. After the "rip", the police woman is in the injured but still alive body. The man who had strangled the police officer seemed to have also time travelled and she needs to solve the case of who strangled the house maid.

There are great supporting characters, primarily the brother and sister who own the home where the maid works. Both are interested in the developing study of forensic investigations.

I listened to the audio version of this and did not want it to end. Fortunately, this seems to be set up to be a series. I will definitely be pre-ordering the next in the series when available.