The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong

 

4.8/5 stars (Rounded up to 5 stars)

Stuck in late Victorian Scotland in the body of a deceased housemaid (no, it’s not a zombie situation, more like an accidental time travel one to be precise), modern day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life. A life where she is now a young assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray (young considering she’s a 30 something year old woman in a 19 year old housemaid’s body). 

Though it seems that Dr. Gray and Mallory’s latest case hits closer to home than the previous one did, this one including Gray’s oldest sister Annis. What starts as a suspected Poisoner’s Ring where disgruntled wives appear to be poisoning their good for nothing husbands turns out to be a lot more than anyone expected. And with Gray’s oldest sister Anes being a suspect, well, it seems that every move the household makes is under scrutiny meaning that Mallory and co. must tread lightly. 

***

I have been waiting for this book to come out since I finished the first book, A Rip Through Time. Oh boy do we all know that I am a sucker for Time Travel mysteries and well, to be honest, just the time travel troupe in general. Kelley Armstrong does a great job pulling the reader in with not only the world that she builds in her stories, but also the loveable characters. I mean, it’s truly hard not to love Mallory, Duncan, and Isla. (Even though Duncan and Mallory’s relationship occasionally frustrates me, but alas I digress as this is not a romance series). 

The Poisoner’s Ring is just as good if not better than its predecessor, A Rip Through time. While I found the first book to be great, I did find it a bit hard to get into. I want to say it took me at least 10o pages to actually get enveloped in the book. The Poisoner's Ring was a lot different, with the way that A Rip Through Time ended, like I mentioned earlier, I was waiting for the second book, so it was really easy to dive back into the universe of Victorian Edinburgh that Kelley paints. 

This book expands more on the relationships of the Gray family while adding more players in the story. It also touches on racism, classism, and other topics relevant to the time that the characters have to deal with. 

I found myself impressed on Gray being able to open up to Mallory a bit more about his thoughts on her eventually leaving to go back to her own time if the opportunity arose, especially after how he had begun to shut her out a bit in the first book due to the fact that her and Isla hid her secret from him for so long. The character development on Gray’s side I think was good for the story (as all character development usually is). Though, I do hope for there to be romance between the two, I also don’t think it possible with Mallory residing in Catorina’s body as it has been hinted at multiple times in the book that Gray is not attracted to younger women, even if Mallory’s brain is the same age. A girl can wish, can't she?

I found myself unable to dislike Duncan and Isla’s older sister, Annis. Is her current and past treatment of both Duncan and Isla (especially Duncan) terrible? Yes, it is, but you can also see where she deeply cares for her younger siblings. I loved how Mallory was able to figure her out quite quickly and I love that Annis did try to protect Duncan and Isla multiple times in the book and for that, I hope to see more of her and maybe reconciliation and growth between the three siblings in future books. 

I feel like I can go on about this book a lot longer because to be honest, I didn’t want to put it down. When I wasn’t listening to the book, I was thinking about it and that’s a good sign that I really enjoyed the book. Kelley did a great job with the second book in the series and I can’t wait to see what comes next for the Gray household. My hands will be on the Novella that comes out this year and I’ll be eagerly awaiting the third book in the series!

I want to give a thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Kelley Armstrong for initially providing me with an audiobook copy of this book to read and review. Due to life circumstances, I was unable to get to it until after it was archived on Netgalley. I did purchase a copy of the audiobook for myself though. I received the initial copy as an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest rating and review. All opinions and thoughts on the book are my own.

As always, my review can also be found on Goodreads here.