I’m always very excited when I realise a new Below Stairs mystery is out. In this case, I was even more excited when I got the book because I found out about it before the library bought copies. So once it was available in my local library, I rushed to get it.

Speculations in Sin is the 7th book in the Below Stairs mystery and it packs a punch. As with the previous book, the mystery is one that is close to Kat herself. The last book talked about her former husband (who tricked her into marriage) and this book is centered around Kat’s best friend’s husband, Sam Millburn. Apart from being her beloved friend’s husband and one of the two people taking care of Kat’s daughter, Sam is also the current suspect in both an embezzling and murder case. Kat is convinced that Sam has been framed and so plunges into the case to try and solve it.

One thing that I’ve always enjoyed about this series is the way the friend group has grown closer. While we do see Lady Cynthia, Bobby, and the rest, I felt that the focus on the novel was squarely on Kat and her friend Joanna. It’s not a huge deal because the friendships are more or less established, but I would have liked to see more of Cynthia and Thanos’s interactions.

While the friendship group isn’t featured as much in this novel, the novel more than makes up for it in the romance aspect. Kat leans on Daniel quite a bit in the novel and their relationship makes very good progress. I won’t give any spoilers here but I was definitely very pleased with what was happening since I’ve been rooting for them!

And of course, the mystery was very well done. My review is making it sound like this is a character-focused book but don’t worry, the mystery is really what drives the plot (and the characters) forward. I thought it was very interesting to have the mystery set in the bank and was mildly thrilled to see the words ‘Hanseatic League’ and understand what it means. I did wish we saw a bit more of the bank that Sam works in, but I guess someone of Kat’s stature was never going to be able to get too deep into its inner workings anyway.

In my opinion, Jennifer Ashley has written another book that will satisfy fans of the Below Stairs mystery. I’ve got very high hopes for the next book; I’d like to see the next mystery focus on Daniel and resolve one of the long-running subplots in the series.