Novella Review – Kirkyards & Kindness (A Rip Through Time, Book 4.5) by Kelley Armstrong (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Time Travel/Historical Fiction/Mystery
Length: 158 pages
Publisher: K.L.A Fricke Inc
Release Date: December 2, 2025
ASIN: B0F8YP6JWM
Stand Alone or Series: 4.5th book in the A Rip Through Time series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“A year ago, twenty-first-century detective Mallory found herself in 1869 Edinburgh, in the body of Catriona Mitchell, a housemade working for Dr. Duncan Gray, pioneer in forensic science. Shortly after she arrived, she made the unfortunate acquaintence of Catriona’s former criminal mentor, Davina, an entanglement that nearly got Mallory killed. Now she’s about to meet Davina again.

Greyfriars Bobby has disappeared. The little terrier is already a legend, and Davina has made a tidy living showing him off on graveyard tours…while picking the pockets of her guests. When the elderly dog vanishes, Davina calls in a favor from her old student. Mallory agrees to help find Bobby in return for the one thing she’s been unable to get from Davina—the mysterious Catriona’s life story.”

Series Info/Source: This is a novella in the A Rip Through Time series and takes place after book Book 4 of that series. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: This was a decent novella. This is set after Book 4 in the series and focuses on the disappearance of a famous dog named Greyfriars Bobby. While nothing super exciting happens, this was a well-done mystery and I enjoyed it.

This story brings in some additional aspects of Catriona’s past as one of Catriona’s “friends” Davina who is upset about Greyfriars’ disappearance because she was making money off of using the dog as part of her graveyard tour. The story focuses around the disappearance of this dog and Mallory (in Catriona’s body) working to solve this mystery. We do get a bit more character development both around Mallory and Duncan’s relationship and by learning more about Catriona’s past. Some small progress is also made on Duncan’s sister’s relationship with policeman Creedy.

This was a well done and quick read. I enjoy the setting of Victorian Scotland and enjoy watching Mallory try to unravel Catriona’s past. The mystery was well done and cute and gave some incite into this time in history.

This would be an okay stand alone read, but I think you will enjoy it more if you have read previous books in this series.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this short jaunt, it is a cute and well done mystery. I continue to enjoy the setting and premise here and love the characters. We do get to learn more about Catriona’s past, which was fascinating. I think you will enjoy this more if you have read the previous books in the series. I would recommend this whole series to those who enjoy police procedurals that are set in a historic period (with some weird time travel stuff thrown in). This series does have a tad of romance, but it is more in the background.