Disturbing the Dead

Mallory Atkinson is a modern-day homicide detective living in Victorian Scotland, inside the body of a housemaid named Catriona Mitchell. The switch happened the night both women were attacked in the same dark alley, 150 years apart. Mallory's employers know the truth, but wearing someone else's body still unsettles her.

She now works as assistant to Dr. Duncan Gray, an undertaker and medical examiner, and she likes the job. The 1860s feel less foreign than they once did. She is making real friends there, and some of her feelings run deeper than friendship.

When Sir Alastair Christie invites Mallory and her friends to a mummy unwrapping at his home, she is not surprised, since Victorians are fascinated by death. Then the host goes missing just as the event is due to begin, and Gray and Mallory are asked to take over.

Once the wrappings come off, the body underneath is not an ancient one. It is far more recent. This entry in the Rip Through Time crime series mixes historical atmosphere with a procedural puzzle, in a light, adventurous tone. The question is who lies under the bandages, and where Sir Alastair has gone.