Title: Death at a Highland Wedding   
Author: Kelley Armstrong          
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery/thriller, fantasy   
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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.

This was a fun read. I thought I’d read the first book in the series—and not the second two—but maybe not. I still had no problems stepping in mid-series. I enjoyed the characters and the dichotomy between modern Mallory caught 150 years in the past. I found all the characters to be solid and (mostly) likable, and I truly had no idea what was really going on until the reveal at the end. Very solid historical/time travel mystery read with some great characters.

Kelley Armstrong is a bestselling author. Death at a Highland Wedding is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

• book review
• books
• characters
• reading