Review: Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Disturbing the Dead (A Rip Through Time, Book #3)

by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: May 7, 2024

2024 Minotaur Books

Ebook ARC & Audiobook; 337 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250321282

ASIN: B0CG4KDR8C

Audiobook: B0CKM3PQYC

Genre: Fiction / Historical / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

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.

 

My Thoughts

Disturbing the Dead is the third book in this historical mystery series that has a unique twist as the main character is from the modern time, but inhabits a body from the 19th century. Unfortunately, the person in whose body she inhabits didn't always make wise choices, so not everyone is convinced that a knock on the head is the reason for her sudden personality shift or her sudden newfound knowledge. I find this aspect of the novel quite fascinating; how do you inhabit a body from 150 years ago without revealing who you are and what you know? And blend all this in with an interesting murder mystery, and I was hooked from the beginning. However, there were still some things that made me roll my eyes, more than once.

 

Mallory continues to be an intriguing character and I love her daily struggles trying to reign in her knowledge of the future so she doesn't affect the timeline in any way or shape when things were discovered and by whom.  I personally think this would be the greatest obstacle for me as the knowledge comes so naturally that we often say things or do things without realizing we are doing them, and these actions would be so strange to people during this time period.  Having found her place within the household, she now struggles with who to let into her small circle of people who have knowledge of what happened to her. As the circle grows, I am becoming a lot more intrigued with the other characters who surround Mallory as more secrets are revealed. And I just love the housekeeper!! I won't say anything more about her as I can't without revealing any information, but I definitely didn't pick up on that thread at all. 

The plot moves at a consistent pace, spending equal time on story and character development, something I think is important to the series.  There were plenty of twists and turns, some of which caught me off guard. Now, that being said, one of the things I loved in the previous books was the tension between Mallory and Duncan and the stress of trying to survive in Victorian England. Having to come to grips with the expectations on women, class structure, medical inadequacy, etc... put a strain on Mallory and she made a lot of mistakes and misjudgments. In this book, none of that was included and she suddenly seemed able to maneuver her way through a lot more easily which affected the overall tension and fun of the book.  And despite how awful Catriona was portrayed, I expected more from the story than what happened and was so incredibly disappointed by the ending. This sort of went against all the themes about women's rights and redemptive arcs developing in this series.  And don't even get me started on the letter/time business. Nope!!

Verdict

Disturbing the Dead was still an interesting book and I enjoyed the themes that were continuing to be developed in this book about exploitation, women's rights, social class, medicine, poverty, and policing. I do enjoy it more when Mallory struggles during this time period as any one of us modern women would not enjoy the lack of liberties that exist and have major difficulties adjusting as we were just not brought up to manipulate and deal with societal norms in a different manner. Although I think this is the weakest book of the three, there was still enough in this book to keep me invested and I will definitely be continuing the series.