I couldn’t get a hold of Jennifer Ashley’s first novella in this series, A Soupcon of Poison, so I started with the first full book, Death Below Stairs. I am not a huge fan of novellas as it is (too short, plain and simple), so I’m not incredibly concerned about missing it. Plus, I found this novel to be an adequate starting point for the series.
Kat Holloway takes a new position in Lord Rankin’s household as the cook, where she meets a wide array of characters: a gossipy butler, a put-together housekeeper, the despicable Lord Rankin himself, his wife, and his sister-in-law, who insists on wearing Gentleman’s suits all of the time. On her first morning in the house, Kat stumbles upon the body of her cook’s assistant in the larder, leading her to seek out her old friend/acquaintance/love interest Mr. Daniel McAdam, an investigator who can help her bring the girl’s killer to justice.
Death Below Stairs was a really fast-paced book. It started out with Kat boldly introducing herself to the reader, taking her new position, and finding a body, all within the first 25% of the novel. Soon, she’s traipsing through Mayfair and Covent Garden, looking for clues, and accompanying Mr. McAdam in his efforts to suppress the Irish rebellion. I like the pace because it does keep the reader interested (although, slower-paced books have held my interest as well, so to each their own) as the plot moves along. However, I thought some of it could have used a little more domestic detail, such as Kat thanking her new assistant or finding time to sleep in all the events taking place.
The other slight – slight – flaw I have with this book is that Kat seems to be magically allowed to do things above her station, such as going on the train with McAdam. Her trip ended up being a few days, and although she wanted to go, she really shouldn’t have, being that she was only a cook, and a newly-hired one at that. She also thinks above her station, more critically than we see others do in this novel. I don’t think that’s super reasonable for an uneducated domestic servant, but Kat has had somewhat of a fall from grace, so I’m not sure what her social standing was before that. She may have been educated to think critically, but it still remains somewhat dubious for me.
Whatever Kat’s flaws, they are nowhere near enough to keep me from reading the second book. I enjoyed this one a lot, and I like that both Kat and Mr. McAdam have shadowy pasts, because I keep wanting to read more to find out what secrets they’re keeping. While this book had all the major elements that you’d find in a movie (romance, intrigue, death-defying stunts, etc.) that were a little too believable for the characters, there’s very little chance that I won’t read the next book because the entertainment quality was so high in this one. It was also written very well and was clear without giving away the plot, so I enjoyed it very much.