Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong is number 3in the series starring modern day detective Mallory Atkinson as she is caught in the body of a maid 150 years in the past. Luckily she is still in the household of undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray so can continue her profession. This story concerns the unraveling of a mummy at the home of Sir Alastair Christie where the mummy ends up being Sir Alastair himself. This is another good mystery set in the Victorian era.

Great series. I love Isla and McCready and the rest of the secondary characters! And the setting and the history! Excited to see what the series brings next

Kelley Armstrong is the author of nearly 50 novels. Disturbing the Dead was published early last May, and is the third book in her Rip Through Time series. It is the 43rd book I completed reading in 2024.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this novel as R.

Mallory Atkinson is 30 years old and was once a successful homicide detective. Now, she is the housemaid and sometimes personal assistant to Dr. Duncan Gray. This change in career wasn’t a choice Atkinson consciously made. She had a near-death experience, and when she awoke, her consciousness was in the 20-year-old body of Catriona Mitchell in mid-19th century Scotland.

By the time this novel takes place, Atkinson’s unbelievable background is known to Dr. Gray and his younger widowed sister, Isla. Detective Hugh McCreadie is Dr. Gray’s closest friend, and he is also aware of Atkinson’s story. Between her own background in the 21st century and Dr. Gray’s work as an undertaker in the 19th, it is not a surprise when they find themselves solving mysteries.

Dr. Gray’s older sister, Lady Annie Leslie, invites the four to accompany her to the home of Sir Alastair Christie. They are going to witness the unwrapping of an Egyptian mummy. When it is time for Christie’s guests to observe the unwrapping, he is nowhere to be found. As the mummy is unwrapped, the small audience is horrified to discover that the corpse is that of Sir Alastair Christie.

The Grays, Atkinson, and McCreadie endeavor to discover the who and the why behind Sir Christie’s death. Many close to Christie seem to have some motive. Their inquiries do not go unnoticed, which puts them in danger.

Complicating the investigation is a growing attraction between Atkinson and Dr. Gray. Atkinson is conflicted because of her time travel. How far should she go in her new life when she might be returned to her real life?

I enjoyed the 10.5 hours I spent reading this 341-page mystery. I enjoyed this period mystery with a time travel twist. While part of a series, this book reads well on its own. I like the selected cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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I absolutely love this author and ESPECIALLY this series!! Mallory and Duncan are the perfect duo and I love how they work together to figure things out. This book surprised me a bit and we met some new characters (I absolutely adore Queen Mab and the whole underground market thing!!) as well as some old friends. Without adding any spoilers. I’ll just say I loved the decision Mallory came to when faced with a difficult choice and loved the solution for keeping in touch. It would be so nice if the messages somehow could go both ways, esp because of a comment that was made regarding a comatose patient that I suspect may be Catriona.

I do hope we see more of what will happen with Lady Christy, Sir Alastair’s wife, and the children as well as what Jack has on Lorna that zipped her lips so quick. Looking forward to the next book!!

*3.5 stars rounded up. This is third installment of the Rip Through Time series and I do recommend reading them in order as the story builds one upon another. Previously in this series, a near-death experience transports modern-day homicide detective, Mallory Atkinson, back in time to 1869 Edinburgh, Scotland, where she awakens to find herself inhabiting the body of a buxom young housemaid in the household of Dr Duncan Gray, a scientist who does business as an undertaker and medical examiner. Eventually she shares her true story with Dr Gray and proves her worth and investigative skills, so that now she has now become his assistant.

As this story begins, Duncan's older sister, Lady Annis, invites them to come along to a 'mummy-unwrapping' party at the home of Sir Alastair Christie, who has recently returned from Egypt with two of them. It will be the event of the season, fancy dress and all. But that night something goes terribly wrong and once again Duncan and Mallory are drawn into helping solve the mystery.

Of special note, there are some nicely-handled twists to the plot that answer some intriguing questions about the time travel aspects of the story. I enjoyed how all that works out and thought it ingeniously done.

BUT: Is Mallory even trying to 'pass' as a proper Victorian-era woman at this point? Often her language and actions seem so modern--even swearing at times. Gasp! So far she's putting up with the cursed corsets and long dresses but there are some hints that she may be wearing pants soon. How will that work in proper society?

A PET PEEVE: Too many times the author writes that someone 'snorts', a sarcastic response to something ridiculous that is said. I personally don't know that many people who rudely snort in conversation and these characters are supposedly refined, educated, professional, upper-middle class people. I found myself noting each time the word is used once again, which of course threw me out of the enjoyment of the story. The book needs some tighter editing over things like that, imho. I know, quibble, quibble, but it's the English teacher in me coming out.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new time-travel mystery via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. I am currently reading an arc of the next book in the series, book #3.5, Schemes & Scandals, publishing in October, 2024. (And yes, someone has already 'snorted', lol.)

3.5 ⭐️’’s
Homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is a time traveler. As her time in 1890’s Edinburgh becomes less strange, she’s still a bit uncomfortable being in someone else’s body. Mallory is an assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray. Dr. Gray is aware of Mallory’s true identity while most think she’s just a maid. The Victorians have a fascination with death and when the two are invited to a mummy unwrapping ceremony, they weren’t surprised. The real surprise came when the mummy was unwrapped! This series is unique with a cast of great characters and a suspenseful mystery. Not my favorite of the three, but good nevertheless. Thank you to Minotaur books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

✨ Publication date: May 7, 2024✨

Disturbing the Dead is the third instalment of the A Rip Through Time series by Kelley Armstrong. This series focuses on a modern day police detective Mallory Atkinson being thrown back 150 years to the Victorian era. Mallory finds a place in the Gray household as the assistant to the undertaker using modern day investigation techniques in the Victorian era.

Mallory and Duncan Gray are invited to a “mummy unwrapping” party. A wealthy archeologists comes back from an excavation with several artifacts from Egypt. In order to satisfy his sponsor he agrees to have a mummy unwrapping party.

As unusual as this is, Mallory and Duncan attend with the Gray sisters and their police detective friend McCready. The party host is is missing so Dr Gray is asked to begin the unwrapping. Almost immediately he notices something is wrong and discovers that the body wrapped is not an ancient mummy but the host himself.

Gray, Mallory and McCready set out to solve the murder. As the author weaves in fiction with actual historical figures, the group works together to gather evidence and make an arrest.

During the investigation, Mallory is attacked and unknowingly gets thrown back to current time after 6 months in the past. After seeing her family and trying to understand how she even went back and forth is faced with a decision that will permanently impact her life moving forward.

Will Mallory stay in her own time period or find a way back to solve the murder and tell Duncan Grey how she really feels.

I love this series! I highly recommend you start on book 1 though to understand the characters and how Mallory ended up where she is. This is a 4.5 star read for me!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#NetGalley #kelleyarmstrong #disturbingthedead.

Presenting: the book that caused a major reading slump! I loved every second I spent reading Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong and had no idea what to do with myself when it was over. It’s the third book in her Rip Through Time series and it’s by far my favourite - they just keep getting stronger!

Here’s the book’s description:
Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends―and feelings―in this century.
So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.
A friend mentioned that she got a little bit bored with the mystery and I can kind of see what she means. While I was invested in finding out what happened to the “modern” mummy, the other bits of the story were slightly more compelling. I wasn’t bored by it though and enjoyed the other characters I got to “meet” while Mallory and Gray tried to help solve the murder (except for, you know, the murderer - not a fan of them!).

I very much enjoyed getting back to Victorian Scotland, especially since I was just in Edinburgh (again) over Christmas. I found myself constantly Googling areas and checking my photos to see if we had ended up in some of the same places Mallory had been describing. The city, even now, is full of history that is almost impossible to fathom, especially for a tourist who’s only there for a week or so. (As busy as it was over Christmas, something I wasn’t quite expecting for some reason, it was still a remarkable place to spend the holidays.)

At the risk of being too spoilery, we get a bit more information about the time travel aspect of the story in this book. Which is kind of why the mystery took a bit of a backseat. I think my jaw was hanging open for a good portion of the story because I really wasn’t sure how it was all going to turn out!

This series may frustrate history buffs but for those of us who enjoy history but don’t actually study the Victorian era? Oh, it’s perfect. I love the time period, the location, the characters, the time travel, and the mysteries. It’s everything I love wrapped up in one hell of a compelling series. One that I really hope continues!

Historical fiction and mystery lovers will thoroughly enjoy Kelley Armstrong’s latest book, Disturbing the Dead. The Rip Through Time series is incredibly entertaining and is well worth a read. (Even if it did give me a huge book hangover!)

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Disturbing the Dead is a continuation of Mallory Atkinson's story. Mallory has accidently traveled back in time 150 years and is inhabiting the body of a housemaid. So you've got the time travel aspect into a historical setting, and then this is also a murder mystery. In modern times Mallory is a homicide detective, but in 1869 she is a housemaid who works for an undertaker and medical examiner, who she has romantic feelings for.
In this book our main characters are invited to a mummy unwrapping party, but instead of a mummy, a fresh corpse is found inside the wrappings. Chaos ensues, and our dynamic detective duo must figure out who killed this newest victim.
One of Armstrong's greatest strengths, in my opinion, is her attention to historical detail. She has clearly done her homework!

Disturbing the Dead was another exciting mystery in the Rip Through Time series! It’s the third book in a series best read in order. The Grays are invited to a mummy unwrapping, which is distasteful to Mallory with its insensitivity to the dead, but this is 150 years ago. However, the unwrapping serves up a shocking surprise! Mallory, Duncan, and Detective McCreadie hunt up a killer and thief.

It’s been fun seeing how Mallory deals with the lack of forensic advances and technology in solving these cases. I also enjoy the relationship between Mallory and Duncan. There’s been a romance brewing, the slow-burn kind. I also enjoy Mallory’s friendship with Isla, Duncan’s sister. The two have scientific minds and big hearts!

I was happy that Mallory’s place as Dr. Gray’s medical assistant was more solidified. There were a few ends tied up that have been hanging through the series so far, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I look forward to the next mystery!

I enjoyed the first two books in this series, but this one just didn't draw me in for some reason.

The idea of the murder mystery is a good one- our heroes find a murder victim wrapped up like a mummy when they go to a mummy unwrapping party! But the cool factor goes away when you think about it for more than two minutes, and ultimately this whole thing doesn't make sense. The author also goes to GREAT lengths to be sure that we know that she doesn't approve of mummies being taken from their places of origin, that they need to be repatriated and that our heroes don't agree with this at ALL, they are just going to the party under some mild form of invisible protest. I'm not sure many Victorians, if any, would have thought this way, although Mallory might.

Maybe it's that there wasn't any sense of tension, that the plot was running on rails. Maybe it's that Mallory is so nicely settled into Victorian Scotland that there isn't a lot of interest in that way. Maybe it's that when Mallory unexpectedly returns to the 21st century, she is convinced by her whole family that she should return (somehow??) to Victorian Scotland because she clearly loves it there; they'll be fine without ever seeing her again, no worries. No emotions, it all wraps up incredibly neatly.

It definitely felt like this book was low on energy and high on tidiness in the plot. I'm leery about another one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this Advanced Reader's Copy.

Armstrong's writing style shined in Disturbing the Dead. Equal parts historical fiction, sci-fi, and time-travel fantasy, this third installment in the A Rip Through Time crime novel series kept me quite avidly entertained. Ever consistent in her creation of female characters, Armstrong's leading lady, Mallory, was headstrong, well-reasoned, bold, but also intuitive and crafty. Sarcasm can be difficult to render on the pages of a book, but Armstrong does this artfully. Gray, the male lead, is a scrupulous, careful gentleman native to Victorian Scotland. Better yet, Gray can keep up with Mallory's wit and the two weave together a believable and entwining romantic subplot.

The main plot of the story opens when the main group of characters attend a mummy unwrapping in 1869 Scotland. When the owner of the house and the host of the unwrapping party goes missing, Gray and Mallory must unwrap the mummy themselves. This is where the true conflict begins, and it hardly slows down from there. Both well-paced and fascinating, this is a must-read for the science fiction fans who wish to dabble in time travel.

When a mummy unwrapping party leads to the discover of a murder, Mallory and Duncan investigate the death, a series of thefts and the underground market on illegal goods.

I continue to love this story, but I feel that the pacing of this novel was a little off. There is an unexpected event that I would have expected to be a cliffhanger that happened at the 80% mark of the story. It threw off the pacing for me for the rest of the novel

Disturbing the Dead is the third installment in Kelley Armstrong's A Rip Through Time historical fiction murder series. I'm never disappointed by Kelley's novels.

We're back with Mallory, now that she is Dr. Duncan Gray's full-time assistant and no longer a housemaid. Annis invites all of them to accompany her to a mummy unraveling party at Sir Alastair Christie's home. Although Duncan and Sir Alastair did not get along, Duncan can't turn down this offer. When it comes time to unveil the mummy, Sir Alastair is nowhere to be found, so his sponsor (money person) asks Duncan to do it because he has surgery and medical knowledge, but he will only do it with Mallory's assistance. After they start unraveling the wrapping, they realize this cannot be an Egyptian mummy of unknown age, and soon find that it is Sir Alastair himself! Who would want to hurt him, and who would have had the knowledge to re-wrap him?

Mallory, Duncan, McCreadie, and Isla have their work cut out for them with this case. Lord Muir immediately tells them that it had to have been Florence King, a member of the Edinburgh Seven that had been demonstrating outside of Sir Alastair's house. The Edinburgh Seven were a group of women trying to get accepted into medical school, and Sir Alastair was speaking out against it. But that's not the only person who recently had issues with Sir Christie, and it will take a trip to Queen Mab and the underground market to start putting it all together.

The romance blooming between Mallory and Duncan is slowly moving in the right direction...if she could just be in her own body! Isla has another mystery to solve...the Adventures of the Gray Doctor, chronicling Duncan's cases, and making Mallory just seem like an empty-headed pretty face, which she hates. And the new housemaid, Lorna, leaves a little to be desired as well.

All in all, this is everything that I have come to expect from a Kelley Armstrong novel. Great writing, interesting characters, a fascinating mystery, and immersive world-building. If you enjoy historical fiction or a good murder mystery, then check out this series.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Minotaur_Books for a digital copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.

As usual, Kelley Armstrong has written another novel I couldn't put down! This series has everything I love time travel, mystery, and a building romance.

Mallory's arc in this third installment of the series was phenomenal. I loved that she was finally able to get things resolved with her family in her timeline. It was wonderful how supportive and understanding her parents were of her situation, and I was so happy she was able to visit with her Nan again.

I'm very excited about the direction this series is taking and can't wait for the next book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Wow! What an adventure this book has given us! I've enjoyed every book in this series so far. I have come to love the characters over the past 2 years. I've become so attached to them that there were moments I was brought to tears. My dear 7 year old asked me, Mommy, why are you crying. I had to explain to him that sometimes a book can touch your heart so deeply it can make you happy and sad at the same time. This is why I love reading so much. This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. I'm excited to see the author has a novella coming out in October to continue the adventures of Dr. Gray and Mallory. I look forward to reading it. Thank you, netgalley, for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest review.

I read Books 1 & 2 to prepare for this ARC and I am so glad I did! I love all the characters and their personalities. I enjoyed watching Mallory grow into her own and decide what she truly wants in her life and go after it! This is such a fun series, I can't wait for the next book! Kelley Armstrong hits it out of the park again!

Disturbing the Dead
By Kelley Armstrong
Minotaur Books
May 2024

Review by Cynthia Chow

After an attack inexplicably caused Mallory Atkinson to be transported to 1869 Scotland, the 30-something police officer has been living in the body of the blonde 20-year-old maid Catriona. It has taken the past six months for Mallory – and her story – to be accepted by her employer, Dr. Duncan Gray and his chemist sister Isla. Forbidden to practice medicine due to legal snafus involved in grave digging for medical experiments, Gray works at his late father’s funeral parlor in Edinburgh. Gray and his other sister Lady Annis have just been invited to attend the unwrapping of mummies from Egypt at the home of Sir Alastair Christie, an event that is being protested by Florence King who opposes what she sees as the desecration of a foreign man’s body. One of these protesters includes a member of the “notorious” Edinburgh Seven, six women led by Sophia Jex-Blake to enroll in the male-only University of Edinburgh to study medicine. When the mummy is unwrapped and it turns out to be the body of the tardy Sir Alastair, Miss King becomes a suspect due to his having been one of those attempting to ban the women from the University. Sir Alastair also had a hand in removing Gray’s license to practice medicine, adding him to the list of possible culprits. Due to the laziness and incompetence of the police surgeon, it has been Gray and Mallory who have unofficially been working together to solve recent murders, and this spurs them on to investigate once again using Mallory’s modern-day forensic knowledge and Gray’s more practical medical skills. Just as Mallory and Gray’s still distrustful housekeeper circle in on a suspect, Mallory may find herself back where she thought she had wanted to be, but at the most inconvenient time.


Outlander, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, and (one of my favorite films) Somewhere in Time have all depicted their heroes traveling through time, but here Kelley Armstrong takes the unique approach of creating a body-swapping mystery series. The surprise for readers – and for Mallory herself - comes in just how well she has adapted to living without modern-day forensics, not to mention the outdated ideologies and technological inconveniences. While she desperately misses her parents and her ailing Nona, Mallory can’t deny how much she enjoys living in this new time period and the very unique household. Perhaps that is best explained in her connection with Duncan Gray, whose illegitimacy and mixed-race heritage has him also on the outside of society and forced to push for acceptance. The story of the Edinburgh Seven is similarly fascinating, and readers will want to know more about these extraordinarily intelligent women who fought past the harassment of their fellow students to achieve their goals. Despite the gap of 150 years there are topics that resonate to both eras, be it the struggle for women working in male-dominated professions or respecting differing cultures. This is an intriguing, original, and very well-written series that combines a historical mystery with a modern-day heroine.

In this third book in the Rip Through Time series, time traveling homicide detective Mallory Atkinson gets involved in a murder mystery involving a mummy and the wrong body.

I like Mallory. She's dedicated to her job with medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and I love the banter between these two characters. There's plenty of historical details here which is nicely done in this time travel story.

Overall, if mysteries, Victorian Scotland and time travel is what your looking for, you might want to try this series. This author does a great job in building a certain atmosphere in these stories that I just love and it makes all the difference in this sort of fantasy story. I would also recommend starting from the beginning, but you can read this standalone if you want to check it out.

Ooh, I love Mallory's arc in this third installment of The Rip Through Time series. I am so happy she was able to find a solution to her problem and return to the correct timeline. I love that her parents were so understanding and accommodating and that Mallory was able to see her Nan before it was too late, I have a feeling we will see or hear from her body double in future novels, I think I may have figured out what happened there but we shall see.