Review – An Ordinary Sort of Evil (A Rip Through Time, Book 5) by Kelley Armstrong (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy / Time Travel
Length: 310 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: May 19, 2026
ASIN: B0FLYRFYZW
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the A Rip Through Time series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 star

“Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after travelling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. She’s built a new life for herself. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. And with Gray in particular, perhaps, someday, something more.

Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business, and they assume there’s been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray’s presence. The ghost is Lady Adler’s former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she’s dead or alive. But unsure if there’s been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud, and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling–and more dangerous–than it first seems.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 5th book in the A Rip Through Time series. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this 5th book in the A Rip Through Time series. I didn’t think this was quite as good as the last book in the series, but it was still entertaining, and I like the Gray and Mallory make some progress in their relationship.

Gray and Mallory are urgently summoned to a seance in Lady Adler’s home. The ghost of Lady Adler’s former maid has demanded that Gray be fetched in order to solve her murder. The catch is that no one knew the maid had been murdered, and of course, ghosts aren’t real…are they? When they find out about another girl drowning in the same area as this girl, they start to wonder if there really is a pattern to these murders.

I have never been a huge fan of murder mysteries, but this series continues to engage me. I do find some of the parsing and re-parsing of facts as the characters try to figure out the mystery a bit tedious at times. However, that is a “me” thing, I think. That has also been the biggest downside of this series to me. It just gets a bit wordy as the characters think through their evidence.

I do continue to really enjoy the characters here and enjoy watching Mallory get better at navigating aspects of Victorian life. I love the direction the story is taking with Mallory and Gray and am eager to see where things go with them (both romantically and professionally) in future books. This book has heavy themes around social and women’s rights, as might be expected when a modern woman ends up in Victorian times. I also greatly enjoyed the cameo by the Queen.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this and thought it was a good addition to this series. The mystery was well done, although I found some portions of the story that rehashed those facts a bit tedious. I really love the characters, the overall story concept, and watching Mallory adjust to a life in Victorian Scotland. I am eager to see what the next book in the series adds to the story.