We are now on book four of Kelley Armstrong’s “Rip Through Time” series—and if we include the fact that there are least two novellas, I have visited these characters many times over the past few years. I feel deeply immersed in the world and am excited to see where Mallory, Duncan, Isla and Hugh take their next adventure. You won’t be surprised to hear that Death At A Highland Wedding takes place in the Scottish Highlands. And a wedding? Count me in.

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 behaviour 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.

Since this is now the fourth book in the series, I would recommend reading my reviews about A Rip Through Time, The Poisoner’s Ring and Disturbing The Dead, since those will already give you a good sense of how I feel about the series. That’s also why this review will be a bit shorter.

I have also seen that Kelley Armstrong has already released the title of her next book in the series, so there will be more Mallory, Duncan and company in our lives next year!

What didn’t work for me

The (very, very) slow burn: I mentioned this last time, and I’m adding it here because, as much as there are some developments on the main love story, there really isn’t a reason these characters shouldn’t be together. There is also mention of a letter that we never got to see—and that was just a tease. So it’s not really something that didn’t work in the book as a whole, but I’m getting a bit impatient. And speaking of slow burns, this book took me a little bit longer to get into than the others, though I’m not sure why.

What I liked

The setting: Who doesn’t love a wedding? And though this one isn’t a typical 21st-century wedding (things have really changed in the past 150 years), it was still fun to see what kinds of traditions there were and how they celebrated (at least for upper-class folk) marriages.

The murderer: I won’t say any more because I don’t want to give anything away, but I was surprised by the twists and turns this one takes. Though I will flag that there is some mention of sexual assault.

4.5 STARS

“As I said in the letter, I would never trap you like that. I only thought…I thought you might come to came for—” —Kelley Armstrong, Disturbing the Dead

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.