Move Over Miss Marple—Lady Hardcastle Has Arrived
... with her lady's maid
I admit it. I like cozy mysteries. These days the tag ‘cozy’ seems to be applied when the detective isn’t a serving police officer. Miss Marple comes instantly to mind.
I recently read the latest book in a series which stars the aristocrat Lady Emily Hardcastle and her lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong. The series begins when Lady Hardcastle and Flo take up residence in the small village of Littleton Cotterell in the English countryside not far from Bristol in the years just before the First World War.
There’s a murder, of course, clumsily disguised as a suicide. Lady H and Flo set their talents to finding the killer and in so doing we are introduced to the residents of Littleton Cottrell, including the elderly and impoverished owners of the manor house, the Farley-Strouds, Daisy the barmaid at the Dog and Duck, Fred and Eunice Pratt the local butchers, the vicar and his wife, and so on. They appear in most of the books.
But this series is not just fun murder mysteries.
Back in the 1910’s England was peaceful and prosperous, ruling over a vast Empire. It was a time of plenty and comfort. The class system was entrenched and accepted. Aristocrats lived upstairs, the servants lived downstairs and each knew their place. But change was in the air. Motor cars were being introduced, women were beginning the fight for suffrage, in fact women were beginning to stand up for themselves. And that’s the current that runs through every book. Lady Hardcastle was educated at Cambridge but at that time women were not awarded degrees. Women did not have the vote because men decided they were flighty and irresponsible. Women were not given credit for much at all. In one book we meet Dinah Caudle, a reporter who has to fight to be allowed to write stories about more than fashion and society.
Despite their stations in life, Lady H and Flo are very good friends and treat each other as equals, something unheard of in class conscious England. But when investigating it’s useful that Lady H can approach the gentry upstairs as an equal while Flo can get the goss from downstairs. It takes time, (several books) but gradually the class conscious Farley-Strouds accept Flo as an equal, too.
Lady H and Flo both learn to drive cars and in one book become involved in motor racing. In another book they delve into a murder at an aeroplane factory and in another they investigate a murder blamed on the suffragettes.
Kinsey has a lot of fun describing the relationship between Flo and her boss. Here’s a taste of the dialogue between Flo and Her Ladyship. Emily is not a morning person.
The coffee cup rattled in its saucer as I put it down on the bedside table, and the covers twitched. A bear grunted resentfully. Or a forty-four-year-old widow – it was difficult to tell the difference some mornings. The sheet flicked down, revealing a blearily blinking face surrounded by a halo of dark hair.
‘What time is it?’ croaked the bear.
‘A quarter past seven,’ I said, brightly.
She groaned. ‘Do get out, then, there’s a love. I have forty-five minutes’ more snoozing to do before I can properly cope with your matutinal cheeriness.’
‘Would that I could, o somnolent one, would that I could. But I come bearing news which can’t really wait.’
‘Bad news? Who’s died?’
‘I sense you’re half joking there, but actually—’
She struggled upright. ‘Who?’
***
I enjoyed sharing the lives of these two very different women. Most of the stories are set around the village but the pair does venture further afield in several books. The coming war that we know about and which our two ladies probably fear, is never overtly mentioned. But it weighed on my mind as I got to know the inhabitants of that tiny village whose lives would be turned upside down in 1914. Flo’s brother in law is a sergeant major and her sister is pregnant. The latest book in the series is set in 1912. I wonder where Kinsey will go from here?
The first book in the series is A Quiet Life in the Country
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.
There are 12 books in the series and I’ve read them all. Given my penchant for tossing anything I consider unreadable by chapter 3 into the DNF corner (did not finish) it’s high praise indeed.