A Quiet Life in the Country
Series: A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1
By: T E Kinsey / Narrated By: Elizabeth Knowelden
Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
What a delight! Is it too soon to get onto the second in this series?!?
I’d had The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries in m’ Library for eons as the kindle ebooks go on sale frequently, and it’s SUPER cheap to get the paired audiobook. But it wasn’t until I was scrolling through Accomplice Subscriber’s Favorites and saw them noted that I decided to give the series a Go.
How enchanting! How delightful!
Told from the point of view of Lady’s Maid Flo, Lady (And Flo will NOT call her Emily, has done that only once, and that was only because they were in quite a predicament and about to die… how exciting!) Hardcastle and she have left the environs of London to set up house in the country. As the story progresses, we see that this was sorely sought as there are MANY allusions to MANY death-defying adventures the two have had during their years-long relationship. They neeeed a quiet life what with all they’ve seen and done.
What starts as simple days, hiring a cook and a maid so that Flo needn’t trouble herself too terribly much, visiting the local gentry, walking in the woods so that Lady Hardcastle might sketch the days away, soon turns into sleuthing extraordinaire whenst the pair stumble across a very dead young man, hanging from a tree. The man in charge of the case, Inspector Sunderland, hears of a row between the victim and another burly brute, and he immediately deduces the brute is the culprit.
Not so fast, thinks Lady Hardcastle, and she starts Flo investigating at the local pub where it’s discovered that there were two altercations that evening. There’s sleuthing, yes, but life goes on, and then the pair just happen to be at an engagement party that turns deadly. A member of the Ragtime band playing for the party is found dead in the morning. AHA! Now Lady Hardcastle and Flo are drawn into THAT to-do. And then they’re asked to investigate a missing jewel. They have their hands sooo totally full!
This is all vastly enjoyable as we see the eccentric pair’s unconventional relationship in action, what with Flo eating her meals at the table with Lady Hardcastle, and what with witty and quippy banter going on between the two of them. Inspector Sunderland, who starts out as a flat cardboard cutout character, turns into a wonderful straight man for the two women as he comes to know them and to watch them in action. The two go against his wishes SEVeral times but never in an obnoxious or “clever” way that would make you roll your eyes, and there’s just fun writing all around with memorable characters and a nice portrayal of the manners of the day (1908).
To say Elizabeth Knowelden is marvelous is a true understatement. At first I was worried because there’s little distinction between the voices for Flo and Lady Hardcastle, but pretty soon I was able to keep up, even when the banter was rapid-fire back and forth. Knowelden effortlessly crafts distinct country characters to go with the genteel characters to go with the characters who might not be all they’re pretending to be. There are Ragtime musicians, country police folk, hurly burly rugby men, sneering below-stairs servants, a nabob, and so much more. And when Lady Hardcastle hits the brandy too hard? Well, Knowelden has that covered too with affable slurring and much drunken bonhomie. Follow that up with a woman grouchy with a hangover, and you get a truly wonderful Listening experience!
Nope, I’m still not that UP on following clues, and for a while there I got exasperated as I thought no one was looking at obvious connections (And I was feeling rather pleased with myself for noticing!), but then we’re given Lady Hardcastle’s ploys and plans, and things all came together for a jaunty, kinda sorta sweet nail-biter of an end. Soooo fun, sooo good-natured, I can totally see why they’re all called Cozy Mysteries.
My husband asked me how I was liking it, and I offered that I was feeling rather mournful about not being able to imMEDiately jump into the second installment in the series seeing as each week I try to do a variety of audiobooks, or I follow a theme. But he pointed out that it was MY OWN danged website, and I could jolly well do what I please.
Touché!
P’raps y’all will be seeing the second audiobook reviewed, like, really soon. Cuz I’d jolly well love to do what I please, and that would be more Flo, more Lady Hardcastle. And Inspector Sunderland? Will you be back, too?
Yesssssss!
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