Sophia Rose Reviews: Rotten To The Core by TE Kinsey #8 Lady Hardcastle Mystery

Today I welcome Sophia Rose back to the blog to share her review of, Rotten to the Core by TE Kinsey, #8 in his Lady Hardcastle Mystery series.
Enjoy!

Rotten to the Core by TE Kinsey

#8 Lady Hardcastle Mystery

Historical Mystery

Publisher:  Thomas & Mercer

Published: 6.6.22

Pages:  333

Rating: 4 stars

Format: eARC

Source: Net Galley

Sellers: Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Blurb:

Summer 1911. 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.

Amateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her trusty lady’s maid, Flo, suddenly have a juicy case on their hands. Might the mysterious stranger they recently met in the village be to blame?

When a second cider-related murder takes place, it quickly becomes clear that there’s more to these mysterious deaths than meets the eye. The daring duo uncover whispers of an ancient order and moonlit rituals. And evidence points to a macabre secret in the village stretching back years. A secret someone will do anything―anything at all―to keep hidden.

Something is rotten, that’s for sure. With the local constabulary baffled, Lady Hardcastle and Flo must use all their powers of wit and whimsy to get to the bottom of the dastardly deed. But can they catch the killer before any more people drop dead?

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

A return to the Edwardian Era English village of Littleton Cotterell for the latest detecting antics of Lady Hardcastle and her intrepid maid, Flo, was just what I needed to beat the summer heat.  More deep friends even family then employer and maid, Emily and Flo have become some of my favorite investigative teams and I was eager to dive into the latest murder mystery.

Rotten to the Core is book eight in a series that do best in order, but work just fine standalone, too. 

A hot summer in their home village leads to a bumper apple crop and harvest.  Lady Farley-Stroud wants help with the dinner so the ladies head into the village to get some ideas.  That is when they learn about the Weryers, a local secret benevolence organization.  Emily and Flo are curious, but go home only to learn the next morning that one of the Weryers, and a likable orchard owner, Claud, is found dead under one of his own apple trees with an apple in his mouth.  The local constabulary are stymied and invite Lady Hardcastle and Flo to join the investigation.  There are plenty of suspect from the Weryers themselves to a stranger seen in the village and the more they investigate, the more motives and opportunities they find as well.  Meanwhile, a killer is not willing to stop at one and the gals need to solve the case as they are now on the killer’s short list. 

Rotten to the Core is back in the village and the ladies are surrounded by a familiar cast of characters from Flo’s friend Daisy at the bar to the big house neighbors The Farley-Strouds, and of course, Inspector Sunderland.  I loved that and I loved seeing the gals bantering and enjoying themselves.  The mystery got darker than usual with the higher than normal body count and, unlike previous villains, this one gave me a chill more than usual.

 

The background of the secret society of Cider Wardens and the apple harvest was interesting.  I enjoy that the author takes the time to make sure the historical period and setting are colored in.  My favorite part is the relationship between Lady Hardcastle and Florence Armstrong particularly knowing what they did before they retired.

 

The mystery almost utterly stumped me.  I felt there were too many possibilities even later in the book to bother trying to figure it out.  I was content to follow intrepid Flo and Emily to the solution.  Well, I did work out the stranger’s role was not what they thought and had an idea about the motive after a bit.  Flo got into action with her martial art and espionage skills at exciting moments and Emily wasn’t far behind her racing their car and letting people think she is a frivolous type.

 

All in all, it was another fab entry in the series.  I would say it leaned more toward regular murder mystery than cozy for this one, fair warning.  Bright characters, engaging setting, and a mystery plot to baffle readers makes this a historical mystery/series I can heartily recommend to other readers.

 

Author Bio:

T E Kinsey grew up in London and read history at the University of Bristol. He worked for a number of years as a magazine features writer before falling into the glamorous world of the Internet, where he edited content for a very famous entertainment website for quite a few years more. And now he writes historical murder mysteries. In his spare time he plays the drums (quite badly, by all accounts). ‘The Fatal Flying Affair’ is the seventh novel in a series of mysteries starring Lady Hardcastle (there's also a short story, ‘Christmas at The Grange’). His website is at tekinsey.uk and you can follow him on Twitter @tekinsey

Facebook: www.facebook.com/tekinsey

Instagram – @tekinseymysteries

 

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, and gardening. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

Sophia’s Social Media Links:

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose