Disturbing the Dead: A Rip Through Time Novel (Rip Through Time Novels) by Kelley Armstrong 
Series: A Rip Through Time Novel
Published by Macmillan Audio on May 7, 2024
Genres: Mystery
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kate Handford
Length: 14 hrs 23 min
Source: Audible
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Disturbing the Dead is the latest in a unique series with one foot in the 1890s and the other in the present day. The A Rip Through Time crime novels are a genre-blending, atmospheric romp from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.
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.
I am so obsessed with these characters, and sad that I am reaching the end of the current published books.
After being attacked in an alley while investigating the screams of a young woman, Det. Mallory Atkinson has body-swapped with a young Victorian housemaid named Catriona Mitchell.
In Disturbing the Dead, Lady Annis Leslie, formerly accused of poisoning her husband, has been invited to the event of the season — a mummy unwrapping — and she wants her brother, Dr. Duncan Gray, her sister, Isla Ballentyne and Dr. Gray’s assistant, Mallory Mitchell to accompany her. Duncan and Mallory find the idea of disturbing the mummy’s final rest rather distasteful, but the fact that Isla is quite intrigued, means that they will definitely be attending to support her.
When Sir Alastair Christie fails to show up for his own party and the crowd starts to get impatient for the anticipated mummy unwrapping, Dr. Gray and his assistant, Mallory, are tasked with the unwrapping duty. What they find under the bandages is not a desiccated mummy, but the missing Sir Alastair Christie.
As with prior stories, Det Mallory Atkinson in the body of the young housemaid, Catriona Mitchell, brings her 21st century detective skills to assist the Victorian Scotland police in their investigation of the murder.
We are introduced to some more interesting secondary characters. I like that even secondary characters are fleshed out enough so that we get a real sense of them and have in interest in their continuing existence.
Mallory is trying to acclimate to life in Victorian Scotland but she know that when presented with the opportunity to return to 2019 and her family, she will take it. This makes Duncan sad since he has developed feelings for Mallory. Catriona, the pretty young housemaid, held no interest to Dr. Gray but since Mallory took over her body, he has definitely become intrigued with the woman inside. He is trying to understand and accept that Mallory will someday return to her own time, he knows that he and his sister’s lives will be sadder for the loss. Yet this story also includes a turning point for Mallory when she is held at gun point by a “friend” which will change everything. I stayed up way too late into the early morning because I was not going to put this book down until I knew how this story was going to end.
This series is my new obsession and I only have one short story left for 2024.
Favorite Scene:
“Did you say you got me a present?” I say, as we step into the funerary parlor. He closes the hall door behind us.
“I did.”
“Hiring a new maid is a present.”
“Only if she works out,” he murmurs.
“You don’t think she will.”
“I remain optimistic, but I have brought a proper present.”
“A pony? Tell me it’s a pony.” I head into his office and lower myself onto the chair. “As a kid I asked for a pony every year and every year I suffered vast disappointment.”
He frowns. “Your parents did not buy you a pony? They were quite well off, were they not?”
“We lived in the city with a yard smaller than yours, and no stable.”
“That is no excuse. If a girl wishes for a pony and her parents can afford one, she should have one. It is only right.”
I shake my head. I can’t tell whether he’s joking. When I first arrived here, waking up in Catriona’s body, I found Duncan Gray dower, stiff and forbidding. It was a long time before I suspected he might be capable of smiling, and even then I wasn’t sure. Now I’ve seen him smile and heard him laugh but I’ve also learned to interpret the barest of lip twitches and glints in his dark eyes. Right now, though, he was already relaxed and in a fine mood which means it is impossible to tell whether he is kidding. He might not be. Gray grew up in a world where girls, and boys, of the upper middle class do indeed get ponies. I can tell him stories of the 21st century, including the lack of horses, but he can’t quite picture it. It’s like me having come here after seeing the Victorian era portrayed many times and still feeling as if I’d walked into an alternate version, where little was as I expected.
Gray lifts a wrapped package and places it on his office desk.
“Not a pony, I fear.”
“Part of a pony?”
His lips twitch. “That would be wrong. One should not give parts of anything as gifts. Or, so I am told.” A definite glint in his eyes now.
I look down at the package. It’s wrapped in brown paper, as so many things are in a world without plastic or other wrappings. I envy Gray’s ability to wrap packages. I know how odd that sounds but when we’ve been on crime scenes, I’m at a loss looking about for some way to transport evidence and I’ll still be looking after he’s wrapped it in a waterproof parcel so pretty it makes bloodstained knife evidence look like a Christmas present. Of course, if the knife doesn’t have blood on it, he and McCreadie are just as likely to stuff it in their pocket. Chain of custody for evidence isn’t really a thing when Court’s don’t yet admit fingerprint evidence.
“It’s too pretty to open,” I say, as he watches with obvious impatience. “I think I’ll just put it beside my bed.” I pick up the parcel. “Yes, that seems like a fine idea. I will display this beautifully wrapped package by my bed never to unwrap it.”
“I realize you are teasing me, but I would die of shock if you managed to leave it there without peeking for more than a day. Also, I would not suggest storing it by your bed given the…nature of the contents.”
I look at him and arch a brow. “Interesting. So it is…perishable? Can I eat it?”
That lip twitch. Stronger now. “I believe there are laws against such a thing.”
I eye the package. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
He reaches to take it away. “If you do not want it.”
I snatch it from his hands. Then I take a knife from his desk and cut the twine. It’s not just brown paper. It’s waxed brown paper. Suggesting the contents are indeed perishable. I keep unwrapping it and…I clap my hands to my mouth with a squeak of girlish delight.
“Oh, Dr. Gray, you have brought me a body part.” I wag my finger at him. “Such a tease. You said parts aren’t proper gifts and so I barely dared hope but no, you have brought me…” I reach and pick up the pickled appendage, “…a third hand. This will make cleaning the chamber pots so much easier. I no longer have to use my own hands. I can use this one.” I let out a deep sigh of happiness.
