I love going through AAR’s Best of Lists since I am always guaranteed to find some great books. Thanks to Maria Rose’s list, my most recent discovery is the A Rip Through Time series starring Detective Mallory Atkinson and mortician and crime solver Dr. Duncan Gray.

MAY 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. She’s taking a late evening run when she hears a woman in distress. Following the sounds of a struggle, she heads down a dark alley where she sees a lady in late nineteenth-century clothing being attacked. Mallory hesitates, uncertain if this is some sort of projection or one of the many costumed guides of the city in an actual altercation. In the seconds it takes her to decide on her next move, she lets her attention slip, and that’s all it takes for someone to get a rope around her neck. Mallory gets a good look at her attacker as she is dying, for what little good it will do her.

MAY 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell is discovered strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one hundred and fifty years before Mallory is strangled in the same spot. Catriona is carried to the home of her employer, Duncan Gray, where she is laid out on her bed until her family can be contacted.

When Mallory awakens, she is both thrilled and confused. She hadn’t expected to survive and is, of course, delighted to have done so. However, the room she is in is clearly part of a house, not a hospital, and she appears to be in some kind of costume. She walks over to a mirror where the image looking back at her is blonde, buxom, and a teenager. Mallory is a short-haired brunette in her thirties. Initially, she’s convinced her clothes, reflection, and location are all props in a fantasy of the lunatic who attacked her and apparently kidnapped her. She’s disabused of that notion when she encounters the housemaid, Alice, who shrieks at finding her alive and calls upon Dr. Gray. It is he who tells Mallory that it is May of 1869, her name is Catriona, and she is a housemaid in his home.

Relying heavily on her head injury, hours-long coma, and strangulation, Mallory is able to convince (almost) everyone around her that her strange patterns of speech and odd behavior are due to her recent ordeal. With few options available, she determines to work at the Gray house to keep a roof over her head and food in her belly while she tries to figure out how to get home to her friends and family. As the days pass, this becomes a particularly pressing issue because Mallory learns Catriona was a thief, a liar, and a manipulator, and the person who choked her probably had just cause. If they’ve done a body switch, Mallory must return to protect her family and friends from this nineteenth-century con artist as quickly as possible.

During her maid duties, she winds up assisting Dr. Gray with an autopsy he is performing for the police on a murder victim. Surprised at her helpful insights during the course of the procedure, Gray makes her his assistant. Mallory is happy to be doing the kind of work she loves, especially as the crimes they are solving show a knowledge of the future that only a time traveler would have. Which means Mallory isn’t the only one who switched bodies on that fateful night.

Your ability to appreciate this story will depend, in part, on your ability to simply accept the premise. While it all seemed more than a bit fantastical to me, Ms. Armstrong’s stellar writing and fascinating characters enabled me to thoroughly enjoy the narrative, even as my mind fumbled over some of the more improbable scenarios regarding the time travel.

This is, in large part, because of how well Mallory fits into Catriona’s life. The honest, diligent, and hardworking Mallory is a much-needed improvement to the sneaky counterpart she replaces because not only is she a better, less light-fingered maid, but her assistance to Dr. Gray and his friend Detective McCreadie as they work to solve the crimes is resoundingly helpful. Both men are clever and capable, but Mallory has training either/both of them would envy if they knew about it. Watching Mallory slowly build good relationships with those the other girl had damaged is part of the fun.

And the tale is fun. Yes, there is murder and violence, but somehow, the author imbues all that with a sense of joy. Mallory delights in the historical insights she is gaining on nineteenth-century life and on that era’s police work. She’s cheerful and helpful, and if every once in a while she finds herself in a funk trying to figure out how to get home, she doesn’t make others around her (or the reader) miserable over it. Her positive attitude and willingness to fix the issue rather than whine about it make the tale a joy to read.

All of the characters are actually pretty wonderful. Duncan and Isla, his widowed sister and housemate, have turned their home into a haven for progressive thought. This was a bit of a stumbling block for me, but it allows the author to portray them as people that twenty-first-century readers will find admirable and explains why Mallory isn’t more of a fish out of water. The author deploys this tactic skillfully, allowing the era’s history to shine through even as she removes the common thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of that time from Mallory’s immediate environment. It helps that Duncan is a by-blow of his father’s relationship with a dark-skinned woman (probably from India, but their father never gave them the details), and as a minority living in racist times, he’s learned to forge his own path.

The mystery is intriguing and is enhanced by the time travel angle. I loved the deductive work our three crime fighters employ to find the perpetrator and how a resolution of sorts occurs for both Catriona and Mallory.

I ripped through A Rip Through Time, finding it a thoroughly enjoyable (if implausible) story. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys lighthearted, character-driven detective stories.