Death at a Highland Wedding - A Rip Through Time #4

 

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth Rip Through Time historical mystery by Kelley Armstrong. Released 20th May 2025 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out in 2nd quarter 2026 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

This is a well written and eminently readable fantasy time-slip murder mystery. The main protagonist is an intelligent strong and capable young 21st century Canadian policewoman who has been marooned in the Victorian era in Scotland and begun to make a stable life for herself in the body of a girl in service in a quite eccentric household made up of a core of friends who know her incredible secret (and believe her).

The time-travel aspect as well as the investigation in the past were well built up and executed. The dialogue flows smoothly and the author is good at the period aspects of both dialogue and class behavior as well as social roles. The limits of the period technology, and MC Mallory's internal reasoning are mostly well rendered and believable. 

The plotting dragged a bit at the beginning for and there is a large cast of characters who are nearly interchangeable. It's difficult to keep them straight including their relationships to one another. The denouement and resolution were well done and satisfying. There's a Quantum Leap aspect which is cool and the later parts of the book were engaging and entertaining.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 14 hours 27 minutes and is read by series narrator Kate Handford. She has a rich alto voice and generic North American/Canadian accent and does a good job of the narration with the exception of the bits of Scottish dialogue, which weren't especially accurate. Her voice quite pleasant and well modulated. The sound and production quality are high throughout. 

Four stars. There's a returning ensemble cast with established back-history. If the books are read out of order, there will be spoilers for things that happened in the previous books (but nothing truly heinous). It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home library, or a buddy read. Content warnings for racism, misogyny, homophobia/violence, and animal cruelty/trapping. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.