Caffeinated Reviewer

I love the Rip in Time series by Kelley Armstrong and was delighted to get early access to Schemes & Scandals, a holiday novella. A modern day female detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland where she helps a doctor and a constable solve murders. It’s Mallory Atkinson’s first Christmas and she and Dr. Gray must solve a blackmailing case.

It’s Mallory Atkinson’s first Christmas in Scotland. Victorian Scotland, that is. Also, as the twenty-first-century detective learns, Christmas really isn’t a thing in Victorian Scotland. It’s all about Hogmanay. But her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, treats her to an early gift of tickets to the event of the season: a Charles Dickens reading. There, they bump into Lady Inglis—the lovely widow who has sent Gray sexy letters trying to entice him back to her bed.

Lady Inglis introduces Mallory to Dickens—the meeting of a lifetime—but in return she wants their help. She’s being blackmailed. Someone stole letters she wrote to another lover and is threatening to publish them.

Mallory isn’t sure what to make of Lady Inglis, but no woman deserves that, so she insists on taking the case with or without Gray’s help. Growing tension between them soon tells Mallory that Gray is hiding a secret of his own. She has until Hogmanay to uncover the blackmailer…and, hopefully, to put things right with Gray so they can enjoy the holiday together.

Note this is not a full-length novel. It's a novella set after Disturbing the Dead.

I love this series including the novellas. Mallory Atkinson, a modern day detective, was attacked and woke up to discover herself in the body of a housemaid in the home of Doctor Duncan Gray. You’ll need to read the series in order to discover all that and how she is now working to solve cases.

It’s Christmas in Victorian Scotland and it’s Mallory’s first. While Christmas wasn’t really celebrated, Hogmanay, the last day of the old year, was. From Dicken’s A Christmas Carol to gift giving, we get to spend lovely time in the Gray household and celebrate the season.

It wouldn’t be a Rip Through Time story without a bit of a mystery for Mallory and Duncan to solve, and that comes from a widowed acquaintance of Duncan’s. It seems someone is blackmailing her over letters she wrote to her lover. Scandalous! I had a delightful time as Armstrong had us hunting down clues, sneaking into men’s only clubs and more. It was clever.

I love that despite the short-length, we got a complete mystery and a fun holiday story. I highly recommend this series and novella to fans of historical mysteries with a hint of romance. It’s filled with intrigue facts and delightful characters.

It looks like the hardcover edition from Subterranean Press was pushed back, but the kindle edition will publish December 3, 2024.

Amazon Kindle | Hardcover Edition

About Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed. Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

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About Kimberly

Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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