This is the second book in the A Rip Through Time series, so the review ahead contains some minor spoilers for book one.
Having established how Mallory ended up in Victorian Scotland in the first book, and starting a crime-solving career in that era, this book is about her settling into her new life and dealing with yet more murder. The story is a self-contained mystery that manages to resolve itself while filling in some characters’ backstories and introducing some new characters. Also, the slow-burn romance is starting to … smoulder.
(Side note: I am very interested and will keep reading the series to see how/if the romance angle resolves. The whole travelled from a different time and is in a body that is not hers really … I don’t know how things could resolve. I’m excited to see where it goes. In the meantime, I am rooting for two side characters to be together, and waiting to see if that possible romance kicks it up any notches in future installments.)
Picking up one month after the events of the first novel, Mallory is settling into her Victorian life and focusing on that life as a way to avoid thinking about how she doesn’t know how to get to her own time. She is also going by Mallory now, using Catorina’s “amnesia” from the first book to explain her new attitude and saying with that new attitude/turning over a new leaf in life, she’s going with a new name. Tying into this a lot more characters are in on the fact that Mallory has time-traveled, which is kind of fun. I do miss her trying to fake it like in the first book, but since not everyone knows she is a time-travelling detective there are still moments of her having to remember to act like a Victorian housemaid.
This book fleshes out the Gray family a bit more, we get to meet the oldest sister. She is, as we would say in my family, a piece of work. I did appreciate how she was written to be true to her (often unpleasant) character. Something I really enjoy about his series is that Mallory (and in my case me as a reader) often expects the characters to act a certain way, but typically they end up getting some interesting shading done to them. I didn’t like Annis by the end, but I respected that she stayed true to her character.
This was a re-read as I gear up to read the third book in the series (plus one of the novellas) in anticipation of the fourth book coming out this May. I meandered through the book on the first read, and the same thing happened this time. A lot is going on (murder, conspiracies, a Victoria-era fight club …) and while I found the plot engaging in theory, the execution did not hold my attention for long periods. Thankfully I did find it easy to pick up and put down. I like all the parts of the novel, but it didn’t quite come together as a whole for me. I also liked some hints of what is to come – I need to know more about Mrs. Wallace for one thing. As the books seem to be fleshing out the Gray family, I am hoping we also get more on the household staff.
Next up is the novella that bridges books 2 and 3, and then book 3! I have not read Book 3 yet, so I am excited to do a non-reread in this series and see how I feel when I tackle instalments I haven’t yet read.