Murder in the East End | Blog Tour
Murder in the East End by Jennifer Ashley (A Below the Stairs Mystery)
Berkley Trade Paperback Original – August 4, 2020
I love a good cozy mystery. That’s not quite right. I love a good cozy mystery with a harder edge. I don’t generally love mysteries that indulge in gratuitous violence and what my finace and call “murder porn” where, typically women, indulge in voyeurism and consume media about violence toward other women. That stuff makes me feel icky. So I tend to like ‘cozy mysteries’ but ones that have a bit more of an edge rather than the cute ones where the cat solves the mystery, if you get my drift.
On that note I was thrilled to be offered a copy of Jennifer Ashley’s Murder in the East End, which is a fantastic mix of historical mystery and a dash of romance.
About the Book
For fans of Deanna Raybourn and Susan Elia MacNeal, Jennifer Ashley’s Below the Stairs romantic mysteries have received outstanding acclaim from major media including The Washington Post and Bustle, as well as Booklist and Publishers Weekly. The next installment of this beloved Victorian mystery series, MURDER IN THE EAST END, follows the intrepid Kat Holloway and the mysterious Daniel McAdam in their exhilarating search for the missing children of London’s Foundling Hospital.
The fourth Victorian murder mystery in the Kat Holloway series from the New York Times bestselling author of Death in Kew Gardens.
When young cook Kat Holloway learns that the children of London’s Foundling Hospital are mysteriously disappearing, she can’t turn a blind eye. East End parish vicar Errol Fielding has his suspicions, but the police brush him off, and Kat–and his childhood acquaintance Daniel McAdam–are his last option.
Kat and Daniel are determined to solve the mystery, and Kat engages the help of her scullery maid, Elsie, who reveals she had been a foundling. Their investigation takes them to the less hospitable areas of London, including the very streets where Kat grew up. She soon suspects the answers they seek are much closer to home than any of them realized–and may reveal far more than any of them wants.
My Thoughts
First, it’s important to note that this is the 4th book in the series. I know. I’m crazy for reading the 4th book 1st! But to it’s credit, it’s completely readable and understandable on it’s own. While, after reading it – I do think that reading the series top to bottom would be ideal – it makes sense on it’s on. I love when an author can do that.
Our protagonist, Kat Holloway, is endearing and I love that rather than being a lady of leisure, she’s a cook. Hence the ‘below the stairs’ moniker on the series. She’s an excellent cook in an upper class household and surrounded my an interesting group of supporting characters. In particular, I enjoyed the bluestocking characters and the love interest who clearly works for a kind of undercover police.
My main qualm with the book is that the mystery really seemed to take a backseat. This makes a complete sense. The main character is not an investigator or a police officer and since she’s working class she cannot investigate all the time. But, this makes the novel read rather slowly and means that the mystery does not have a quick resolution. On this note, at least in this novel, I feel like the wrap up of mystery was a bit too convenient.
Despite these issues, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! Kat is a fantastic character and I truly enjoyed the subplot of the romance, which seems like a major slow burn over the length of the series.
I would highly recommend this to fans of historical mysteries who are look for a different take on the Victorian murder mystery. I’m definitely interested in reading more of the series!
About the Author
Jennifer Ashley is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Below Stairs Mysteries, the Shifters Unbound paranormal romances, and the Mackenzies historical romances. She also writes as USA Today bestselling mystery author Ashley Gardner. Jennifer lives in the Southwest with her husband and cats, and she spends most of her time in the wonderful worlds of her stories.
