I can’t say they held together very well, but that didn’t deter from my enjoyment because I never read for “the mystery,” but character, voice, setting, and mood. The two Crystal Palace mysteries come together in a scheme implicating secondary characters, Daniel and Kat donning aristocratic disguises, and a plot involving a “paste” diamond necklace reminiscent of de Maupassant’s famous short story. (They’re also quite funny.) Kat always finds the good in others, even when they’ve committed evil deeds and, were is just for that, Ashley has penned a wonderful heroine. But it’s the friendships and potential love interests that see me love and follow the series, and especially because Kat’s “crew” are all infused with goodness, care, and the desire to bring justice (Kat, who never sees a wrong she doesn’t want to redress, address, or redeem). In Death at the Crystal Palace, Kat is tasked with discovering who is poisoning Lady Covington, the Bywaters’ neighbour where Kat is cook, all the while becoming embroiled in Daniel McAdam’s “police work” trying to bring to light who is bankrolling Irish rebel assassins. In this latest volume, there are two mysteries, tenuously connected, and somewhat half-baked, both of them. This is no less true of Kat and her crew of sleuthing “aides”. As always, Ashley’s amateur-sleuth-below-stairs-cook, Kat Holloway, is a wonderful heroine, but as with most mystery series I follow, it’s also the ensemble of characters around the central figure I love. I’m glad to be caught up with Ashley’s Below Stairs mysteries with Death At the Crystal Palace in anticipation of #6, The Secret Of Bow Lane, whose premise sounds most intriguing and is set to be out next week.
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