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.

I was kind of hoping this was the final installment with the big romantic payoff, but was sorely disappointed. When I started this book, I was thinking it might turn out to the best one yet. The mystery was by far the most intriguing, but the slow burn romance has fizzled out.

Mallory even got back into her own body for a minute and chose to come back to olden days, and I was rubbing my hands together in anticipation like, "Okay here we go! The stakes have been raised. It's heart on the line time..." and then nothing. What a fake-out. She and Gray never even had a dang conversation about their feelings when she got back?! What? This man sat by her bedside for two days sick with worry and....NOTHING?! It was just immediately back to business, solve-a-murder time and it dragged on and on with nothing to look forward to. I don't think either of these characters is emotionally mature enough to be in a relationship.

It was a struggle finishing this book and I'm tapping out of this series. I have given up on a HEA for these characters although I'm sure it will eventually be a small side plot in a future book. Disappointed.

It’s been about six months since Canadian homicide detective Mallory Atkinson was attacked in an Edinburgh alley, after which she woke up, a couple of days later, to find herself still in Edinburgh–only 150 years earlier, and in the body of now-twenty-year-old housemaid Catriona Mitchell.

The story is told in first person, present tense, by Mallory; her modern sensibilities and the period setting make for an engrossing narrative. The author strikes a perfect balance between the mystery and the evolving relationships between Mallory and the people around her.

The author lays out the series’ premise and main characters’ established backstories in the first couple of chapters in an economic yet nuanced manner that readers new to the series can follow easily, while not boring returning fans with tiresome repetition.

Beware: racism; xenophobia; domestic violence; misogyny.

This is the third novel in the Rip Through Time series, and quite a bit has changed for Mallory and her employers, doctor Duncan Gray and Mrs Isla Ballantyne, since the events in the first novel; including the latter’s reconciliation with their oldest sister, Annis after their last major investigation into a poisoning.

“We’re in the middle of a brutal game of cards. Sure, I suspect “cards” and “brutal” should never be used in the same sentence, but this is Annis, who could turn Go Fish into a blood sport.” (Chapter 1)

One of the consequences of this reconciliation is that the now-widowed Lady Leslie feels no compunction about dropping in on the household without warning, or in inviting them all–Mallory and Detective Hugh McCreadie included–to social functions heretofore reserved for the highest of Edinburgh’s high society. Mostly, because what’s the point of being infamous if you can’t provoke a stir. But also, because Annis knows that Isla enjoys parties and has few occasions to attend one.

Isla, Hugh, Mallory and Duncan could do without the desecration of human remains as party entertainment, but things being what they are, they all go. While Hugh and Isla entertain themselves with some party food, and Annis enjoys scandalizing other guests by her very presence, Duncan and Mallory make the most of the occasion by checking out some of the other Egyptian artifacts their host brought back from his latest expedition.

Mallory is intrigued by the history between Sir Alastair and Duncan, and by the former’s family dynamics; the second Lady Christie, who was close friends with the first lady Christie, is Egyptian by birth, and her son from her first marriage is clearly half white. Her younger brother, Selim Awad, works with her current husband on their archaeological excavations, and was expected to arrive in Edinburgh in time for the party.

When neither Selim nor Sir Alasdair turn up in time to prevent a rather ugly scene at the party, Mallory and Duncan are prevailed upon to do the honors, given the former’s medical education.

And that’s when they realize that the “badly wrapped” mummy everyone is there to see unwrapped is actually Sir Alastair himself.

We so often hear that old phrase about repeating the past; I am deeply appreciative of authors who managed to show this simply by incorporating historic fact into their fiction–even fiction with such a fantastic element as time travel–in ways that show exactly what that means.

“Someone can support equal rights for one group while denying it for others” (Chapter 20)

I find the breadth and depth of the Victorian Edinburgh we see in these stories fascinating, and never more so than in this entry in the series.

The investigation into the murder involves the Edinburgh Seven, and the breathtaking misogyny of the period; the Victorian fascination with all things Egypt, with the attendant imperialist belief on British superiority and their right to everything they could get their paws on; and the enduring public fascination with “true crime”, through the proliferation of broadsheets carrying lurid fabrications around any unusual or scandalous crimes.

There’s the (literally) underground market where items as disparate as a Hand of Glory and mummia can be found and traded for; there’s the University of Edinburgh, and the politics and monetary considerations of research and higher education; there are the growing societal tensions over workers and women’s rights; the increased literacy of the poor, and the growing spread of scientific discovery–including forensic science–and so much more, all interwoven seamlessly into a cohesive whole.

At the same time, the relationships between the characters continue to evolve from the first book in the series there’s been a growing thread of romantic interest between Mallory and Duncan, and between Isla and Hugh McCreadie; the deep and longstanding friendship between doctor and detective is an essential part of how the Gray household works. Mallory’s own friendship with McCreadie, and how she establishes her new identity with the people who were already familiar with the manipulative Catriona (personally or by reputation), play an important role in solving Sir Alistair’s murder and other crimes.

Isla has her own moment to shine as she addresses a parallel mystery, though I imagine mystery fans will spot at least part of the solution early on, it’s still a lovely way to continue building the more intimate side of the world of the series, through the involvement of other secondary and minor characters, both recurring and new to the series.

Simultaneously, there’s the matter of Mallory’s life in the present; not so much her job or career, as that itch has been more than scratched by her work with Gray and McCreadie, and her friendship with Isla has filled in a void in her life she wasn’t aware was there. No, Mallory’s inner conflict revolves around her family, and the soul-gnawing uncertainty of her very presence in 1869 Edinburgh: how did she get there, how long will she remain, and what are her parents and dying grandmother going through, with Mallory gone.

Ms Armstrong resolution of this aspect of the story had me sobbing, which I absolutely did not expect; I don’t know that it will have the same effect on other readers, but it works for the characters. It gives them closure and frees them to move forward with their lives, and I look forward to learning what happens next for them all.

Disturbing the Dead gets a 9.00 out of 10

Each book gets better and better. I love the characters and the storyline . I love that we get factual tidbits of past history as well. I liked that Mallory has a chance to go back in time , only to have an impossible choice to make ,but the choice has to be made , giving me as the reader hope that there will be more books in this series .

This series truly just keeps getting better. I loved the time travel element in this one and hope there’s more back and forth with Mallory in present and past. Also clocked the floorboard plotpoint from Stitch in Time. Thought it was a clever return. I’m thrilled that Mallory and Grey seem to be getting closer as well. Highly recommend. This had it all.

Kelley Armstrong has a mystery series that mixes Sherlockian detective work with a dash of Outlander. Homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has found herself in the body of a maid in Edinburgh in the 1860’s. She has helped undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray solve a few cases and now she and her friends have to deal with a case of Disturbing the Dead (hard from Minotaur Books) . The corpse in this case is a mummy brought back from Egypt that is due to be unwrapped by Sir Alastair Christie. Of course, it was obvious to me that the mummified corpse was replaced by … The solution to that murder and other nefarious goings on is mundane. This is a fun series and I hope more cases will be written.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

𝔻𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕓𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕕
Rip Through Time Novels - Book 3
352 pages
𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴
Genre Blending

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
Mallory has been taken back in time to Victorian Scotland in the body of a housemaid named Catrina. A homicide detective in the present, she ends up using her skills in the past.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
I didn’t realize this was the third book in a series. I think reading the first two would have been helpful as I struggled through this.

The characters were fascinating, especially as Mallory shared her knowledge from the future. I thought having Dr. Duncan Gray believe her was perfect, as that would be hard to do.

Dr. Gray and Catriona work together to solve a case involving a mummy unwrapping. Interesting people jump into the story such as the first women studying medicine.

Although the plot was intriguing, it didn’t hold my interest. Again, I feel like it would’ve been better if I knew the background. I felt a bit lost as I read.

I know many people love this series. Maybe it just isn’t for me or maybe I just needed to read the previous books to enjoy this more. I’m not going to knock a book when I jump in at book three.

💕Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

Having binge read the entirety of this series (so far) in one week, I can honestly say that this may have just been one of the best mystery/suspense books I’ve read in quite some time. Think Outlander crossed with a forensic psychology book set in the Victorian era.

Disturbing the Dead particularly closed some of the storylines from the first couple books and I cannot wait to see how this series evolves. I’m so excited to see where the author takes these amazing characters and I cannot wait to read more on them!

I’m a big fan of Kelley Armstrong’s Rip Through Time series. I like the story of Mallory Atkinson, a 21st century police detective stuck in the body of a housemaid in Edinburgh in 1869. But, I really like the way Armstrong incorporates the historic laws, medicine, and roles of women into her stories. Disturbing the Dead is the third in the series, and my favorite. It’s also the only one that made me cry.

Lady Annis Leslie, Dr. Duncan Gray’s oldest sister, invites a small group to a mummy unwrapping party at the home of archaeologist Sir Alastair Christie. She invites Gray, their younger sister, Isla, who is a chemist, Detective Hugh McCreadie, Duncan’s best friend, and Gray’s assistant, Mallory Atkinson. All of them are a little appalled that the body will be disturbed, but they also hope their presence will add a little dignity to the process.

It’s certainly not a dignified party, although society turns out. There’s a protester out front, Florence King, a member of the Edinburgh Seven, seven young women who were admitted to medical school despite objections by some. And, the party crowd is loud and only there to be seen and to see the mummy. However, when it’s time to unwrap the mummy, Sir Alastair is nowhere to be found. Instead, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. While they are assisted by Christie’s son, who lectures about mummification, they’re shocked to unwrap a body, a fresh body, not a mummy.

Together with McCreadie, Gray and Mallory try to recover the mummy and identify a killer. While someone suggests steps to take in their investigation, clues indicate that the mummy might not be the only artifact missing. And, there’s someone who seems to be dogging their footsteps, writing of the adventures of Dr. Gray and his beautiful assistant for broadsheets.

Disturbing the Dead is an excellent mystery set at a time when Egypt and mummies were popular with society and the public. However, Armstrong adds another element, giving readers a look at the life Mallory left behind when she was strangled in 21st century Edinburgh, only to return in the body of a housemaid. Armstrong provides a resolution that brought me to tears. If you’ve been following this series since the beginning, there’s some satisfaction in this book.

History, medicine, the roles of women, mystery. It’s all combined in a page turner, Disturbing the Dead.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

Another great installment in the adventures of Mallory and Duncan. Not sure how Kelley Armstrong is this prolific but keep the books coming.