AN ORDINARY SORT OF EVIL

Time traveler Mallory Mitchell finds herself entangled in a case with a ghostly client in Victorian Scotland.

When Lady Adler sends an urgent message to Duncan Gray, a doctor forced to take over his family’s mortuary business after he was prohibited from practicing medicine, Gray leaps at the opportunity to engage in his real love: scientific detection. But when Gray discovers that Lady Adler summoned him at the insistence of the spirit of her missing maid, Nellie, who appeared during a séance pleading to have Gray investigate her murder, his eagerness dims. Unlike the many Victorians who believe in the spirit world, Gray is a skeptic. Even more skeptical is his assistant, Mallory, who in the 21st century had a successful career as a Vancouver police detective, only to find herself transported back to 1869 while on a trip to Edinburgh. When Nellie’s corpse is found in a local bog, Gray and Mallory concede the news of her murder, at least, was accurate. Then the incompetent local coroner enters a verdict of suicide, forcing Gray and Mallory to cast aside their skepticism over Nellie’s apparently posthumous appearance in order to prove Dr. Addington wrong. Their investigation is long and complicated, with scenic detours into their growing romantic attachment. Armstrong offers a colorful cast of characters and a healthy dose of Victorian color. But the most intriguing aspect of her tale is the tension between Mallory’s acceptance of her relocation in time and place and her struggle to take Nellie’s summons from beyond seriously.

A healthy mix of mystery, romance, and a little something otherworldly.