The lastest instalment in the “A Rip Through Time” series brings the same energy that I loved from its predecessors; Victorian murder & mystery, mixed with the slowest of slow-burn (maybe, eventually) romances.

In this newest addition to the series, we see familiar characters return, as well as a cast of new ones - some pompous, some misguided, and all full of their own secrets.

I loved the setting & premise, heading out into the countryside for an estate wedding, only to wind up stuck there solving a murder. Just like the rest of the series, “Death at a Highland Wedding” delivers historical Victorian setting and values alongside our main character’s 21st century mentalities and wit.

Kelly Armstrong is one of my favourite authors and the fourth installment in the "Rip Through Time" series does not disappoint.
Mallory, Duncan, Isla, and Hugh are off to the Highlands to attend the wedding of Hugh's sister. Of course it would not be a Kelly Armstrong mystery without a murder. So when one of the guests dies, it is up to our protagonists to solve the case.
Intriguing, humourous, and thanks to the change of scenery in a new setting, "Death at a Highland Wedding" captured me from the first page.

This is book 4 in the Rip Through Time series, a not-police-procedural set in Victorian Scotland. It's a not-police-procedural because the police detective has been moved through time and put in a young Scottish woman's body. She's working as an assistant to a not-pathologist who assists with the forensics around dead bodies while not being the police surgeon. They both help an actual policeman solve crimes.

In this story, someone is killed at a hunting lodge where they are all guests, so the actual policeman has no jurisdiction either, so they have to work on solving the crime around the authorities even more than usual.

Much of the story is the main characters collecting information on what happened by inspecting scenes and interviewing people and discussing it with each other.

The enjoyment of the story comes from the likeable lively characters interacting as good friends who are respectful of each others' skills. The extra enjoyment I had was the discoveries around the events and the unfolding other characters. This is one of Armstrong's strengths in her mystery novels. It was very well done. The ending was extremely satisfying.

The highland wedding was weirdly tangential to the plot. Plainly no-one gave a stuff about it, including the author. That is my only niggle - why have it in the title staring at me all the time?

Another wonderful installment in the Rip Through Time series. Armstrong begins the book with an intro that gives context to new readers. While this helps anyone who hasn’t read the previous books, I’d recommend reading them anyway.

This book moves us to the country, so a complete change of scenery. The cast of characters that we’ve already met is greatly reduced but we’re introduced to new characters.

The plot moved quickly. I enjoy Mallory continuing to reference things from the future, but also always adapting to the world she lives in now. The mystery was well done, with clues being dropped throughout. And there was just a small scene that left so many questions and opportunities to explore in future books.

I recommend this book and the rest of the series.

3.5 rounded to 4
This is the 4th book in a series. I have not read the other books in this series.
I appreciate that the author gave a brief summary in the beginning of the book to familiarize readers of the characters.
Mallory is a modern day detective who is transported in time to the 1870’s.
This story brings the reader to the beautiful Scottish Highlands to attend a wedding.
One of the guests is murdered. There is a lot of speculation who commuted this crime. But Mallory and Duncan are on the case.
We have a lovely hunting lodge full of people who are suspects. Each with their own secrets.
It was a delightful read. I felt you could read it as a standalone but pay careful attention to the names first and last. I become confused at times with the names, who was who? I would recommend reading the first just to get a feel for the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this advanced readers copy.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press/Minotaur books for an ARC of one of my favourite series. Thank You so much! Now I just have to wait for the physical book to come out so I can buy it.

After slipping 15o years into the past, modern day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her life as a housemaid named Catriona Mitchel. This isn't what she expected though, so far she has developed meaningful relationships with people around her and has come to love her role as an assistant to an undertaker named Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Isla, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to a Scottish Highland wedding for McCreadie's younger sister. The McCreadie's and the Cranstons have a complicated history which made the weekend a little more uncomfortable. The estate however is beautiful, so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the big crowd and they set off to explore the castle and the surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston slightly pompous and prickly sort of man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats and they soon come across a cat that has been caught in one of them and has been severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat's injuries don't match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, the secret and erratic behaviour of the groom, put both Mallory and Gray on edge. When one of the guests is murdered, they have to work diligently to find out who the murderer is, before someone else gets hurt.

I love Kelley Armstrong and her books. Oh my goodness especially this series, this series is one my favourites and the Rockton/ Haven's Rock series. I love reading about the Victorian history and how things are done back then, that we get from these books. I also love how much research she put into these books to make sure they are historically correct. I love that the author gives us a recap at the beginning of the book, because we've been waiting along time and may forget a few things that have happened before.

Something about Mallory and Gray, not being together yet but having feelings for each other, but not sure how to express their feelings makes it so good. I know that this is Victorian times, but I am still waiting for them to kiss, hold hands or do something. Anything. Again i shall say slowest of slow burns. Also the lost letter let me just sob, she was supposed to read it. Duncan Gray please marry this women or at least start courting her already, us readers have been waiting for so long. I love McCreadie's sister in this book and Isla. Isla is also one of my favourites and she does not get enough recognition from readers. Isla and McCreadie are going to be courting each other soon makes me so happy and can't wait to read about their relationship more in the books, especially when we get little snippets from Mallory and Gray and how both of them are rooting for them. It's just so cute.

Gray and Mallory's relationship moves at a glacial pace but you know what, you get so invested in the mystery of the book that sometimes their romance is just a side thing. Happy Reading!!!! Hope everyone enjoys this book series as much as I do.

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. She has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

How I love the Rip Through Time series ... even if Mallory talks to people like she is a modern-day detective when they have no idea she's from the future. Also, I'm very ready for "those two" to acknowledge how they feel about each other!

I enjoyed the change of scenery - going to the Highlands of Scotland was quite interesting. I liked learning more about Hugh and his family. LOVED his sister, Fiona, and I hope we see more of her. Death at a Highland Wedding was filled to the brim with characters to love, some to hate, and many twists and turns. I already can't. wait. to. read. the. next. book.

I highly recommend that readers begin with the first book in the series, A Rip Through Time in order to fully appreciate what is going on in Death at a Highland Wedding.

Thank you, #MinotaurBooks for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. This book is #4 in the #RipThroughTime series, and it has an expected publication date of May 20, 2025.

This book was an absolute delight to read—well crafted plot, interesting and endearing characters, twisty mystery and Highland based action! I look forward to more featuring Mallory, Duncan and McCreadie.

This is the 4th installment of the series and a little less engaging than the prior novels. The end was delightful and wrapped it all up but the pacing in the middle was off. You absolutely need to read the first 3 in the series to be invested. That being said, happy to have these characters back and the book was still a joy! Oh! And the recap in the beginning? Gold.

This eARC was provided by Netgalley.com and I giving an unbiased review.

This is the fourth installment in the Rip in Time series by Armstrong. We are back to modern day detective Mallory, who has slipped through time to a Victorian Era Scotland, and into the body of a housemaid. The original book was interesting to read, though I am not one for historical fiction as much as urban fantasy. Over the course of the MC's story through the books, it seems there will be no need of her returning to her future time line, as she ahs started a relationship, and seems to enjoy detective-type work in this earlier time period. Though restricted by conventions of social placement of women, she is still able to teach more current detective skills to some.

Though the series has been somewhat enjoyable due to the author's writing style, the storyline just is slowly losing my attention. As I stated, I am not into historical fiction, and I feel that these books are somewhat repetitive with the basic story idea: dead body, investigate, lovey lovey, society treatment of women, solve murder, catch bad guy. I do want to point out that this author does do other novels of fiction that I do find more enjoyable.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

!!!!!!!!!!!! Mallory and Duncan are getting so close to realizing that the other feels the same way, I’m at the point where I just want to lock them in a room together until they realize it.

At least Hugh and Isla are finally taking their first steps towards the relationship that has been a long time coming.

The actual mystery in the book made me sad - men taking advantage of younger women who don’t have the standing or ability to defend themselves. I was ok with the ultimate resolution on what our trio decided to do regarding the culprit.

But mostly I was just like “suggesting a marriage of convenience Duncan?! Whyyyyyy” cause we know they both have feelings for each other! I want to read the letter Duncan left for her that she never received!!

I preface all my reviews with Kelley is my niche. I thoroughly enjoy all her writing and have read over 20 of her novels the past few years.

This is book 4 in the series and we begin our tale on the path to, you guessed it, a highland wedding! It wouldn't be a Mallory book without something going away, a body discovered and a mystery to solve. The ever enjoyable who-dunnit with some beloved series characters, diving into some backstories.

Kelley's writing has always been something easy to read, even with heavy themes, she can masterfully balance the edge between comedic and witty to keep readers engaged. Need a little romance but not spicy? This series is the queen of slow burn and I rarely manage to guess the true killer before it is revealed.

Another A+ for Kelley Armstrong and an instant pre-order.

This series has everything I love: historical setting, mystery, romance, and well-developed characters. This most recent installment finds Mallory, Duncan, Isla and Hugh traveling to the Scottish highlands for Hugh’s sister’s wedding. Everything is brought to a stumbling halt when one of the guests is murdered.

The new setting brought a fresh feel to the series, and I love all the little moments of developing romance between our main characters. I also enjoyed the additional difficulties of our heroes not having jurisdiction in the case, so they had to work around the overly eager, and totally green, local constable.

I thought the mystery was decently plotted but the resolution could have been better fleshed out. For how long it took to get to the real heart of the case, I would think the author could spend more than ten pages resolving it. I still enjoyed every minute, even though the author continues to mess with us with those will-they/won’t-they moments. The missing letter had me screaming, but I truly think the next in the series will be worth the wait.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this early arc. All opinions are my own.

Death at a Highland Wedding is the Death at a Highland Wedding is the 4th book in the Rip Through Time Series. Just like her other series, Kelley’s Rip Through Time only continues to grow in character and world development. I think out of all of the books in this series, this one is my favorite so far.

We return to the Victorian Era with Mallory, Duncan, Isla, and Hugh trying to solve another mystery. This time, the group of friends are traveling to an estate for a wedding. Hugh’s sister is getting married. It’s a bit of a complicated situation with Hugh, his family, and a broken engagement, but his sister really wants him there.

Along with a new cast of characters comes a new mystery, of course! This time, a man has been killed and it’s up to the group of friends to figure out what happened and who committed the crime. There are some interesting scenarios thrown in that throw everyone off, too, including an incompetent new constable. Everyone has to work around this individual while also trying to do their part in solving the mystery.

While this is going on, we still see growing romantic tension between Mallory and Duncan, and I can’t help but cheer them on and hope that eventually they will end up together. I want them both to be happy and not have to worry about Mallory jumping back through time to her own time.

I’m eager for the next installment and can’t for more adventures with the crew!

Thank you to Kelley Armstrong, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A misunderstanding knocks the friendship between Duncan and Mallory off course. 🙁

After being attacked in an alley while investigating the screams of a young woman, Det. Mallory Atkinson has body-swapped with a young Victorian housemaid named Catriona Mitchell in 1869 Scotland. Mallory was lucky enough to find herself in the household of Dr. Duncan Gray, a doctor at the beginning of criminal forensics and now moved up from housemaid to Dr.’s assistant.

In Death at a Highland Wedding, Mallory has been invited to attend the wedding of Fiona McCreadie, Hugh McCreadie’s sister along with Dr. Duncan Gray and his sister, Isla Ballantyne. It seems that McCreadie was once engaged to the groom’s sister, Violet, in a long term arrangement between the families. When McCreadie decided to leave his family and pursue an actual job in law enforcement (or more to the point, the first time he laid eyes on then Isla Gray), he broke the engagement. Now his younger sister is about to marry Violet’s older brother, Cranston, in order to join the families.

Our party is invited to partake in the festivities to take place in the days leading up to the rest of the guests arriving for the wedding. Which should have been fine except that Violet is still harboring feelings about the broken engagement which left her a jilted and undesirable bride, this makes everyone a bit uncomfortable.

When one of the guests winds up dead in the wee hours of the morning, Mallory, McCreadie and Duncan work to figure out what caused his death, but more importantly, whether or not the guest was actually mistaken for the groom. In a house full of possible suspects, all with possible motives, along with an entire Village who are not too happy with their new local Lord, Mallory first needs to determine who was the intended victim, before she can figure out who murdered him.

THOUGHTS:
I told you I was a little obsessed with this series. I like crime stories and I like historical romances and I love this character is looking at life in 1896 through the eyes of a modern female detective and not just our modern sensibilities reading about people living in the past, dealing with the issues of the past, such as what is inappropriate for a young unmarried woman.

As far as the mystery, we had a lot of suspects and as I said, they first had to figure out if the victim was the intended victim or was the groom the intended victim. So many theories were thrown around, if it was supposed to be the actual victim, this guy, this guy or this guy could have done it for these reasons…or if it was supposed to be the other guy, here’s a list of who and why someone wanted him dead. This is all complicated by the fact that McCreadie is out of his jurisdiction and the local village constable is pretty much a kid who has no idea what he is doing, especially with a murder and does not want help from the big city detective. This one was actually more a Mallory/McCreadie investigation rather than Mallory/Duncan since they easily figured out how he died, but looking at clues and interviewing witnesses came down to the two detectives.

Even things like why is Violet still so hung up on the broken arranged marriage to Hugh? They weren’t in love or was she? And why hasn’t she married yet, did her broken engagement really make her such a social pariah? And what’s with the creepy groundskeeper? Lots of mysteries to solve.

There is also that will they/won’t they spark between not only Mallory and Duncan but also McCreadie and Isla where everyone knows how everyone feels except the two people pretending they don’t have feelings. In this story, we do take a step forward with Isla and Hugh but maybe a giant step back for Mallory and Duncan. 🙁 If Isla and Hugh get together and obviously marry, then Mallory as an unmarried woman, but no longer a servant, cannot continue to live in a house alone with Duncan, an unmarried man.

The obvious issues between a romance with Mallory and Duncan are Doctor and assistant (although everyone makes comments presuming they must be sleeping together). Neither one wants to blur that line between them, and of course, each believes that they are only one interested in something more. Not to be a spoiler but suddenly, after having to jump through hoops just to discuss the case in a way that does not appear inappropriate, Duncan seems to suggest that if they were married they could have a simple conversation without concerns for propriety. Things get very awkward and very angry very quickly. As I said, they each believe they are the only one with romantic feelings, and I had to re-read to see why things suddenly go wrong. Obviously, Duncan comes off very practical about the idea and Mallory is hurt as a modern woman, she wants to marry for love not practicality, especially because she has romantic feelings. It took me awhile to figure out why Duncan was suddenly so hurt? His suggestion was that feelings might blossom somewhere down the road, while he was thinking Mallory might someday develop feelings for him, Mallory misunderstands and her response is worded in such a way that comes off as “never gonna happen.” So where this could have fast-forwarded the romance between them, they are now both a little hurt and awkward with each other and it is going to negatively effect future stories for awhile. I’m so sad I want to cry. Of course they both seemed to have forgotten one basic fact, that if something happens and Mallory is returned to her own time, leaving Catrina to return to her body, Duncan would suddenly find himself married to a thief and con-artist with no possible divorce.

I do enjoy the audiobook version of this series. While I am happy to get my hands on an ARC, I do miss the narrator and her characterizations.

I want more stories please. And can we (pretty please) fix this issue between Mallory and Duncan!

arranged-marriage, class-consciousness, contentious, cultural-differences, detective, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-setting, historical-urban-fantasy, history-and-culture, local-law-enforcement, mystery-fiction, read, rural, Scotland, situational-humor, snarky, suspense, thriller, time-travel, unpleasant-employee, unpleasant-victims*****

Take a contemporary 31 y/o police detective with relatives in Scotland and transform her into a 20 y/o housemaid in 1870 working/collaborating with an MD/undertaker/early forensic scientist and let your imagination loose. Add in the culture disparities, an arranged marriage with complications, and a murder that seems to be of the mistaken identity variety and you have the basis for this unputdownable addition to an inventive series.
This can't be an unbiased review because I love so much of this author's amazing writing.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected digital galley from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Pub Date May 20, 2025
#DeathataHighlandWedding by @kelleyarmstrongauthor #ARipThroughTimeBk4 @stmartinspress @minotaur_books #canadianauthor #timeslipseries #netgalleyreview #cozymystery #murdermystery #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble **** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #England #MurderInvestigations #timeslip #Scotland #historicalUrbanFantasy #earlyForensics

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth novel in Kelley Armstrong’s A Rip Through Time series, a mix of historical fiction, police procedural mystery, paranormal time travel (to 1869 Scotland) and hints at romance. It combines Mallory Mitchell's knowledge of 21st Century detecting skills with Dr. Duncan Grey's eagerness to explore new (for 1869) crime solving techniques. The main characters keep developing and growing over the course of this series.

Best read from the beginning of the series to fully understand the uniqueness of the characters and Mallory's unusual circumstances. I'm looking forward to watching Mallory and Duncan combine their skills as they solve many more mysteries as well as seeing how their relationship develops. Another winner by Kelley Armstrong, one of my favorite authors.

This is the fourth in the Rip through Time series, if you're not familiar with this series, a modern day detective, Mallory, while trying to stop a mugging is transported back in time 150 years and into the body of a maid, Catriona Mitchel, who is much younger than her. I would recommend reading the other three before this one as the groundwork is set during those. Mallory and her employer, Duncan Gray and his friend Hugh McCreadie (a Victorian era policeman) are off to the Scottish Highlands for the wedding of Hugh's sister. Hugh has a bit of history with the family of the groom, he had once proposed to a woman of the family then broke it off, upsetting her quite a bit. Tension is a little high when they arrive, but they manage to get settled in their rooms, they are at a castle with a lot of rooms and servants. Mallory is with their maid, Alice in an upper floor and when they get in the room they see a door that has a note to not open, of course they open it and a ton of linen falls out, which they have to put back. Mallory and Duncan set out one night to escape the castle and heat and come across a (now) extinct Scottish wildcat that had been killed, and had kittens, one kitten was injured so they decide to nurse it and take the female to look closer at what caused her death. Things speed up very quickly with the death of a prominent attendee and Mallory, McCreadie and Gray step into investigate the death, and quickly determine the person was murdered. The interesting part of this series Mallory having to deal with no modern amenities, no indoor plumbing, no cell phones, no cars, etc and how she adapts to still get the job done. Overall a very good book and I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Minotaur Books for the ARC.

This series is the perfect blend of mystery and time travel. I have missed a few books in this series, but didn't feel confused jumping into this book because the author did a good job of giving history from past books. I'm looking forward to going back and catching up with this series.

I haven’t read the previous books in this series but I think enough is explained to enjoy this book as a standalone. Mallory is a 21st century Vancouver detective visiting her grandmother in Scotland when she’s attacked in an alley and wakes up in the 1860’s. She becomes the assistant to a forensic scientist/doctor/funeral embalmer and works with his childhood friend who is a detective in Edinburgh. These 2 men and the doctor’s sister know Mallory’s secret and include her in their investigations. These 4 travel to a country wedding of the detective’s sister. There are various side stories for each of these characters and, of course, they get caught up in investigating a murder of one of the wedding guests. There are sinister doing by some of the characters, even one who is a surprise. It’s fun to see Mallory navigate her way through Victorian society and its many limitations for women. Plus, there seems to be some sparks between her and the doctor but they dance around their feelings, not the least of which is…will the time travel episode happen again and Mallory is lost to her 1850’s friends? I will definitely read the next book in this series.