The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries is a historical cozy mystery series by T.E. Kinsey. The series features Lady Hardcastle and her maid Florence Armstrong.
Emily, Lady Hardcastle was married to Roderick (later Sir Roderick) and traveled around the world. It was too late when Emily learned their lives are at danger. She found herself standing face-to-face with a man who was to kill her and her husband. While Sir Roderick was not so lucky, the same cannot be said about Emily. With the help of Flo, Emily managed to stay safe and away from the man who killed her beloved husband.
After returning to England, Emily decides to spend a quiet life in a tiny village named Littleton Cotterell. Her maid, Florence, joins her.
The highlight of this series is the bond Emily shares with her maid Flo. Florence is more like a friend than just a servant to Emily. Though the other servants at their mansion are initially shocked at their camaraderie, they soon get used to ‘living with it.’
#1. A Quiet Life in the Country
Emily Hardcastle and her maid Florence Armstrong have moved to the country for a quiet life. But Emily is forced out of her self-imposed retirement when a dead body is found in the woods.
The local police are on the wrong track so Emily starts to make inquiries of her own.
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#2: In the Market for Murder
Lady Hardcastle, amateur sleuth and all-round eccentric, is enjoying a well-deserved rest. But a week after a trip to the cattle market, Spencer Caradine, a local farmer, turns up dead in the pub, face-down in his beef and mushroom pie. Once again, it is up to Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, to solve the case.
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#3: Death Around the Bend
Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, have been invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. They both agree that it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday. But when one of the drivers dies in a crash during the very first race, they discover that what seemed like an uncharacteristic error in judgement may have a more sinister explanation…
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#4: A Picture of Murder
Lady Hardcastle and her trusted lady’s maid, Florence, find themselves hosting a colourful cast of actors whose spooky moving picture, The Witch’s Downfall, is being shown to mark Halloween. But things take a macabre turn when the first night’s screening ends with a mysterious murder, and the second night with another…One by one the actors turn up dead in ways that eerily echo their film.
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#5: Burning Issue of the Day
A journalist has been killed in a suspicious blaze. Everything points to a group of suffragettes, but the apparent culprit insists she is innocent.
When Lady Hardcastle receives a letter from a suffragette requesting her urgent help, the retired spy turned sleuth knows only she stands between an accused young woman and the gallows.
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#6: Death Beside the Seaside
Lady Hardcastle and her tireless sidekick Flo have finally embarked on a long-overdue seaside break. But just as they’re wavering between ice creams and donkey rides, their fellow guests start to go missing—and the duo find themselves with a hysterical hotel manager and a case to solve.
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#7: The Fatal Flying Affair
Emily Hardcastle and her inimitable lady’s maid Florence Armstrong are enjoying a fine summer until Harry, Lady H’s brother, turns up out of the blue with a mystery for them to solve.
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#8: Rotten to the Core
A scorching heatwave engulfs the quiet town of Littleton Cotterell and brings about an unusually early harvest. The villagers are thrilled, but events quickly turn sour when one of them turns up dead in an apple orchard, stabbed through the heart.
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#9: An Act of Foul Play
Lady Emily Hardcastle is celebrating her birthday by seeing a play at the Duke’s Theatre in Bristol with her maid and confidante, the inimitable Flo. Act One is a triumph. Then Act Two opens with a body on stage—a real one. One of the cast has been brutally murdered during the interval.
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