Title: Death at a Highland Wedding
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Published: May 20, 2025
Format: e-ARC
My Rating: 5 stars/5
Synopsis: After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she’s developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.
Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie’s younger sister’s wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who’s been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat’s injuries don’t match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.
My thoughts from the Vault
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.
I know I say a lot on this blog that I am obsessed with Kelley Armstrong’s novels, but I think this series is one of my favourites. Death at a Highland Wedding is the 4th novel in the A Rip Through Time series. I highly recommend starting with the first book and reading them in order before beginning this novel as you really get to know the characters and there are a lot of times where the characters refer back to past books happenings.
The novel begins with Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie on their way to a country estate for McCreadie’s younger sister’s wedding. The estate is beautiful, if you can look past the deadly traps set up against the Scottish wildcats and the guest who is soon found dead in the grounds. Time is against them as they try to solve the murder before the wedding day.
As with most Armstrong novels, I was hooked right from beginning until end. I blasted through this novel despite the extreme busyness of my life at the time. The characters in this novel are just as lovely as in the first three and I am still a huge fan of them. I root for Gray and Mallory as well as all the side characters.
This novel is most definitely a SLOW BURN romance in all caps because 4 books in and we’re still barely burning. but I am loving it. I love the tension and being able to watch the build up of feelings throughout the books. We have way too many insta-love novels these days so this is a welcome trade-off.
I am always left guessing and trying to figure out the murderer before the characters solve the mystery but I have not yet sorted it out before them. I highly recommend this novel/series to anyone who enjoys historical murder mysteries with a little dash of time travel.
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