When my mother first recommended T.E. Kinsey to me, I had my doubts. I mean, it's my mother. But for once, she was right! (Actually, she's pretty good with cozy mysteries. Also tennis. And brownies. But that's for a different blog.)
In the Market for Murder is the second in Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle series, and it is just as charming and fun as the first one (A Quiet Life in the Country, if you're one of those people who like to start at the beginning of the series).
I was reluctant at first because it's set in the early 1900s, and historical fiction is not one of my favorite things. But it only took a few pages to get lost in these characters, who are by the way just as smart, sassy, capable, and strong-willed as any compelling modern characters. Lady Hardcastle may be part of the noble class, but she's completely down-to-earth. She's well-traveled and educated but not above a good cider and beef and mushroom pie at the local pub. Her right hand is her maid, Florence Armstrong, who grew up in a circus and the library, so she has life experience as well as book smarts. The two of them together make a unique and unstoppable team.
In this novel, Lady Hardcastle and Armstrong, still fairly new to their corner of the English countryside, join a friend of theirs at the cattle market and get the chance to meet some of the local farmers. When one of those farmers drops dead in his lunch pie the next week, it's up to the ladies to find out whodunnit. Although Spencer Caradine left no short list of people who disliked him, only Lady Hardcastle and Armstrong can figure out the who, how, and why of the crime.
Utterly delightful and fun, the Lady Hardcastle mysteries are a breath of fresh air. If you're having a difficult week (and who isn't right now?), it's the perfect escape! You don't have to read the first novel to get into the second, but they're both so charming, it's worth it to read them both.
