This time there’s Death and Scandal Upstairs!

In this sequel to Death Below the Stairs called Scandal Above The Stairs artwork is being stolen from homes of the aristocracy and pretty soon from the British museum. Kat Holloway, Lady Cynthia, Daniel Mc.Adam, his son James and Elgin Thanos must once again work together to find out whose stealing the art and whose murdering off art collectors and why. There were pro’s and con’s to this book but all in all it was a worthy successor. 

Pros

In the second book we find out more about Daniel McAdam’s past. Growing up for him wasn’t easy. He grew up around crime and poverty. I do like that Kat and Daniel’s relationship heats up a little bit. There’s no graphic sex or anything, but they do get to kiss more than once in the story. I like that Lady Cynthia and Elgin Thano’s start to show more chemistry. Elgin is intelligent and not like the typical stuffy English aristocrats of the day, and Lady Cynthia goes against the norms of what ladies are expected to do of that time. I also felt this mystery once again kept you guessing as to who the murderer was. This time there were multiple murderers though I won’t spoil who they are for you.

Cons

Although I got through this book fairly quick, I did feel the flaw was the book moved at a slower pace than the first book. I also felt like the character of Tess, Kat’s new kitchen assistant wasn’t necessary and didn’t add anything or move the story along for me.

Overall

Despite some of the flaws, Scandal Below the Stairs was a worthy successor. I enjoy the characters and the story, even if the pacing was a bit too slow for me and the character of Tess I feel like she could have been taken out of the story and the story would have moved along just fine. Soon I will be reading the third book in the series Death in the Kew Gardens and in August I will read the 4^th book when it comes out. The 4^th book in the series is called Murder in the East End which comes out on August 4^th.