A Quiet Life in the Country

A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1

By: T E Kinsey

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they’ve just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life.

But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There’s a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation...

As Lady Hardcastle and Flo delve deeper into rural rivalries and resentment, they uncover a web of intrigue that extends far beyond the village. With almost no one free from suspicion, they can be certain of only one fact: there is no such thing as a quiet life in the country.

Revised edition: This edition of A Quiet Life In The Country includes editorial revisions.

©2016 T E Kinsey (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

More please

Would you listen to A Quiet Life in the Country again? Why?

Thoroughly enjoyable. Humorous and full of intrigue. I am looking forward to the next installment.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Quiet Life in the Country?

The whole book was enjoyable.

Which character – as performed by Elizabeth Knowelden – was your favorite?

The narrator did a lovely job on all the characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, if only I had the time ;)

Any additional comments?

More please!

terrific story

what a plesant surprise it was just to listen to a story and not have to be subjected to bad language. well written and such a pleasant voice to listen to. thank you.

Delightful!

The story is light but totally engaging. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are unique and perfect together. I laughed out loud on occasion , and especially liked that nothing was predictable or formulaic. The performance and accents are great, adding nuance to the story. Loved the whole thing!

good

The narrator was very good and I would like to go on in the series.

I will be purchasing more of this series

Delightful performance of a charming story, filled with just enough twists and turns to keep me occupied. This is a good listen while you're doing something else - relaxing.

It had it's entertaining moments...

There were aspects of this that I found appealing and entertaining, but overall I lost interest. It was too surfacy for my taste in character development or plot.

Clean Fun Mystery

The story was fun and enjoyable. I like the fact I can listen with kids around.

A fun new pair of Edwardian detectives

T. E. Kinsey has written a number of foreshortened cozy mystery series over the years ... several volumes published as Volume 1 with no following volumes ... but with Lady Hardcastle she seems to have found a niche with a pair of enjoyable Edwardian detectives. There are now two volumes published with a third due in June 2017.

Volume 1 of this series doesn't spend a lot of time developing the characters. It almost feels like being dropped into the middle of a series. Through the narration (by Lady Hardcastle's companion Flo Armstrong) we learn that Lady Hardcastle is a widow whose husband was killed while serving for the Foreign Office in China. Hardcastle and Armstrong then made their way precariously through Asia from China to India, with a long enough stop along the route for Armstrong to have done some training with Shaolin Monks. It's never really made clear why they weren't able to simply hop on a ship and return home.

After time in India the two have returned to England and are now determined to enjoy a quiet life in Gloucestershire. That quiet life is disturbed during a walk through some woods where they find a man hanged in an old oak. This begins their career as detectives as they decide the local constabulary isn't considering the crime as clearly as they should. Lady Hardcastle invests in a black board and invents her own "murder board" using drawings and magazine clippings as she and Armstrong begin trying to put the pieces together. Meanwhile, during a ball at a neighboring house, a ruby is stolen and a musician is found dead giving them additional mysteries to celebrate.

Hardcastle and Armstrong have a relationship closer to friends than master and servant. The two play off each other well for some great English humor. Armstrong is Welsh and the child of a circus family which, I hope, will come to some use in future books. In this book she intelligent and sharp-eyed, but other than her martial arts skills doesn't bring much exceptional to the investigations. Her role as a servant lets her mix "below stairs" with servants of other households to listen in on the latest gossip. Lady Hardcastle mostly brings curiosity and eccentricity to the pair but this also hides intelligence that is only hinted at in this book.

Together they're a fun team to follow as they work with or around the police. There are plenty of stereotypical English characters for the period, at least one secret door, and a fair bit of local color. It was a fun read and I'm looking forward to the next in series.

A Quiet Life in the Country

Lady Hardcastle, and her interreasting Lady's maid, Florence Armstrong have sought a refuge from hectic Edwardian London by moving to the country , but, as the Great Dective observed , without the knowledge that your neighbors surrounding you to keep your nature restrained, more crime is committed per acre in the country than the worst streets around Limehouse. On her first morning stroll through nearby woods lady Hardcastle comes apon a hanged man. Well written and paced, this is a pretty good story, I've already gotten the next two story's in the series.

excellent thriller

this thriller kept on making me read more. I read it in one day. Wow!