Disturbing the Dead: A Rip Through Time Novel

by Kelley Armstrong

Overview

Disturbing the Dead is the latest in a unique series with one foot in the 1860s and the other in the present day 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250321305
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Series:	Rip Through Time Novels , #3
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kelley Armstrong is the author of over 50 novels in mystery, fantasy and horror. She believes experience is the best teacher, though she’s been told this shouldn’t apply to writing her murder scenes. To craft her books, she has studied aikido, archery and fencing. She sucks at all of them. She has also crawled through very shallow cave systems and climbed half a mountain before chickening out. She is however an expert coffee drinker and a true connoisseur of chocolate-chip cookies.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Disturbing the Dead

"Kelley Armstrong has a fluid writing style that quickly brings readers into the well-paced story...this is a moving, well-written, suspenseful, and entertaining novel with great characterization...The author’s writing style is engaging and draws readers into the story quickly." –Mystery and Suspense Magazine

“Atmospheric and intricately plotted… Armstrong has created a detailed and approachable historical series with a time-travel twist.”—Shelf Awareness

“Pure fun, unique in its approach and striking in its execution (no pun intended!). Paranormal tales aren’t for everyone, but if you enjoy them, know that Disturbing the Dead is sure to disturb your sleep for several nights of great reading.” —BookTrib

“This is an intriguing, original, and very well-written series that combines a historical mystery with a modern-day heroine.”—Kings River Life

“The plot and the clever, well-written dialogue serve to propel the mystery forward as we struggle to figure out who the perpetrator might be. As with Armstrong's other series, these characters grow on us and become people we like and want to hear about… We are hooked.”—Book Reporter

“Disturbing the Dead is an excellent mystery set at a time when Egypt and mummies were popular with society and the public… If you’ve been following this series since the beginning, there’s some satisfaction in this book.”—Lesa’s Book Critiques

Praise for the Rip Through Time Novels

"Armstrong’s intriguing and atmospheric time-travel mystery will appeal to readers who enjoy historical detail." –Library Journal (starred review)

"Armstrong fashions a satisfying narrative out of familiar parts and nails her lead’s cheeky, anachronistic narration. This is winningly silly and satisfying." –Publishers Weekly

“Clever” —Kirkus Reviews

“A rip-roaring great read. . . the best time travel tale I’ve read in a long time.” — The Providence Journal

“Armstrong’s varied characters, lively writing style, and complex plot tempt us to binge read… Highly recommended.” —Historical Novel Society

From the Publisher

2024-02-17
A time-traveling detective probes the death of a Victorian Egyptologist.

The evening gathering at the home of Sir Alastair Christie is surely the talk of Edinburgh. But Mallory Atkinson’s interest in the event is more professional than social. Since the 21st-century police detective awoke from a murderous attack to find herself inserted into the body of a 19th-century housemaid working for the Gray family, Mallory has tried ceaselessly to fit into their unconventional Victorian household. Duncan Gray is a doctor who’s prohibited from practicing medicine because of his annoying habit of digging up graves, so he’s currently serving as the city’s undertaker. His oldest sister, Lady Annis Leslie, has been invited to the party Sir Alastair is having to show off his latest find—an Egyptian mummy, which he’s planning to unwrap—and she invites Duncan; their sister, Isla; and Mallory to join her. Though, unlike her employers, Mallory knows what’s inside a mummy’s bandages, she can’t pass up the invitation. Alas, the body exposed in the course of unwrapping turns out to be not a long-dead Egyptian, but Sir Alastair himself. It’s up to Detective Hugh McCreadie, Dr. Gray’s best friend, to find out who switched the ancient corpse for a fresher one. Of course, where Gray and McCreadie go, Mallory is sure to follow. Their investigation is plodding along by the book, at least by Victorian standards—instead of fingerprint or DNA evidence, there’s a search for who had access to the mummy and motive to kill Sir Alastair—until the tale takes a sudden turn that puts not only its outcome but Mallory’s entire future in doubt.

Even time travel has its rules, and here Armstrong seems to be coloring way outside the lines.

Kirkus Reviews