Below Stairs #9
There are quite a few historical mysteries set in Victorian London, but what makes this series so memorable is that the main character, Kat Holloway, is not of the nobility, connected to nobility or even someone who aspires to nobility, but simply a humble cook. For a mystery reader, encountering the working-class side of the city makes the series more relatable and the stakes the characters deal with a bit more resonant. The other reason I loved this one is simply that Jennifer Ashley, with over 60 novels to her credit, is a truly polished storyteller with an unerring instinct for what makes a narrative move and connect with the reader.
While secondary to the plot, the details of the way Kat commands her kitchen are pretty compelling and energize parts of the action. In this, her ninth outing, Kat is engaged to Daniel, a longtime beau, and hoping that when she marries she can at last share a household with her daughter, Grace, who now lives with a friend. Kat’s employer isn’t even aware she has a child, and in truth, Victorian employers expected their servants to have very little personal life, so she can only spend time with Grace on her days off.
Her beau, Daniel, grew up on the streets and knows nothing about his own origins, so when a man shows up claiming to have pertinent information, the couple rush to meet him. Unfortunately, he’s killed shortly after their encounter, and the book becomes a hunt for the man’s killer, in the middle of the fraud and underworld gang rivalries that flesh out the plot.
At the moment Kat mind is concerned with two things – the idea of taking up a stall in the market where she can sell her pies and tarts on her days off, and the imminent departure of Grace for the countryside with her friend’s family. Kat and Grace aren’t happy about it, but eminently practical Kat finds a way to come to terms with her daughter.
Meanwhile, the hunt for Daniel’s past continues, involving the close examination of both parish and public records, eventually drawing in both Daniel’s vicar brother and another friend of theirs who is sweet on the daughter of the house where Kat works. Ashley keeps all her recurring characters alive and active, but for me the delicious personality of the vicar is the real standout.
Of course, as all the mysterious stuff is happening, Kat still has to manage her position as a cook in a prosperous household. Although her boss is a bit prim and nosy, she’s mostly able to run her kitchen, her sleuthing activities and even keep track of her daughter. They say the sting is in the tail, and the end of the book, for me at least, had a real emotional heft and a satisfying conclusion, with Ashley enough of a pro to leave enough hanging threads to tantalize the reader eager for the next book. Murder in Blackfriars is series fiction at its best. — Robin Agnew