Historical Mystery Meets Time Travel in A Rip Through Time
By Kelley Armstrong
April 19, 2023
Writers are often asked if there’s a genre that they want to write about but haven’t. For me, it’s historical fiction. There is nothing like a historical novel to whisk me away to another place, another time, another world. So why haven’t I written one? Because I’m not a historian. Every time I started a historical novel, I dove into the research with abandon…and then abandoned the concept as I realized the impossibility of “getting it right.”
I came to realize that what mattered was capturing the period as best I could while telling a satisfying story. Still, I shied away until I was watching the TV version of The Alienist and thinking “What if one of the women helping the early criminalists was actually a modern-day detective?”
I love time travel and time slip stories, so I jumped on this idea. I would set it in Victorian Scotland, to pay homage to my roots. The detective would be Canadian because I am. While I considered alienism, the more I read, the more I was enraptured by early forensics. Did you know—? Okay, I’ll stop there, or this will turn into an overly enthusiastic amateur lecture. But can I just tell you how much fun I had with this research? With this book?
I didn’t choose the title “A Rip Through Time,” but when it was suggested, I jumped on it. One, there’s a Ripper connection (yes, the book is 20 years pre-Jack, but *spoiler redacted*) Two, Mallory doesn’t step through time; she rips through it. Third, in Canadian slang, to “go for a rip” means to go out for a good time with friends, and that fits this book perfectly for me. I hope you have a good time with it, and I hope you meet some new fictional friends along the way.
Sweeps Alert!
Enter for a chance to win a new paperback copy of A Rip Through Time
Comments
Comments are closed.
Thank you for sharing this content. We appreciate your efforts and hope that others will find it helpful.
I’m quite impressed with the suggestion you provided. Tips that are really valuable and worth studying!
Great article, lots of information to read. no longer update thanks
Writing your work I feel it’s great to make it out for people to see again.
Writing your work, I think it’s fantastic to put it out there for everyone to view.
There are different types of materials used in Freightliner mattresses, including foam, innerspring, and hybrid.
You will get one point if you can successfully throw the ball into the basket. The team that gets five scores first will be the winner.