A Rip Through Time is the first in a new time-travel mystery series by Kelley Armstrong. Released 31st May 2022 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in early 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a well written and eminently readable fantasy time travel murder mystery. The main protagonist is an intelligent strong and capable young Canadian policewoman visiting Scotland to be with her grandmother who's in hospice care.
The time-travel aspect as well as the investigation in the past were well built up and executed. I liked the dialogue and the author was good at the period aspects of both dialogue and class behavior as well as social roles. The limits of the period technology, and MC Mallory's internal reasoning are well rendered and believable.
The plotting dragged a bit at the beginning for me and I found myself tempted to skim here and there. It's the beginning of a series, and it's understandable that the author would expend a thorough effort with world building and characterization, so I refrained from skipping ahead. Further on in the novel, I found the mystery itself somewhat linear, but the denouement and resolution were well done and satisfying. There's a Quantum Leap aspect which I enjoyed and the later parts of the book were engaging and entertaining.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 14 hours and is narrated by Kate Handford. She has a rich generic North American/Canadian accent and does a good job of the narration with the exception of the bits of Scottish dialogue, which weren't especially accurate. I've been told that Victorian Edinburgh's dialects are fiendishly difficult, and Glaswegian is worse. It wasn't a distraction and for the vast majority of the read I found her voice quite pleasant and well modulated. The sound and production quality are high throughout.
Four stars. I'll definitely be looking for upcoming books in the series.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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