Death in The Kew Gardens a Tea involved murder

I know this review is a little late, but I finally finished reading Death in the Kew Gardens, the third book in The Death Below the Stairs mystery series by Jennifer Ashley. It took me a week or a few days to finish it but I finished it. This time Kat Holloway befriends and is kind toward a Chinese man named Mr. Li Bang  and in return he gives her some rare expensive tea as a gift. When the next door neighbor Jacob Harkness is murdered, once again Kat, Daniel, Lady Cynthia, Elgin Thanos and now Tess must work together to solve the crime and prove Mr. Li didn’t commit the crime.  Unfortunately this book didn’t hook me in like the others.

Pros

I enjoyed the new character of Mr. Li. Mr. Li was a likeable character. I also liked the fact that Lady Cynthia encountered Kat and her daughter Grace out in public. Lady Cynthia was only hurt that Kat kept Grace a secret from her considering they are both friends despite their social classes.

Cons

Unfortunately theres a lot we’re going to have to talk about. I thought this would be a storyline I’d like but it wasn’t. There also seemed to go so slow and yet toward the end be in such a rush if that was possible. There was the bit about Jacob Harkness having an illegitimate son who also ends up being dead and well that’s never mentioned again. The ending was rushed. I also didn’t care about reading about tea in almost every chapter or the tea trade. Elgin and Lady Cynthia of course have feelings for each other but are afraid to act on them the same way Kat and Daniel are and then again there’s an unnecessary character being added with now a housekeeper whose a thief. I’m now starting to see certain plot elements are being repetitive. The last book Tess didn’t add much to the plot and in the third book this housekeeper is added and she didn’t add anything to the story. 

Overall

Overall the book wasn’t the worst thing I read, but it was so far the weakest one in the series. Even though there’s new mysteries in each book, certain plot elements seemed to be repetitive. You could read these books as standalones but its best to read them in order, in order not to miss important details. Hopefully book 4 Murder in the East End shakes things up a bit, if not I’m going to consider not being in a rush to pick up the next couple of books in the series.