New Installments in Two Favourite Book Series

* T.E. Kinsey - Lady Hardcastle Mysteries 10
* J.R. Ellis -  Yorkshire Murder Mysteries 9

 

A Fire at the Exhibition by T E Kinsey
A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 10
Audio book narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
Release date: 09-05-23 

Publisher's summary

May 1912. After the previous year’s deadly heatwave, it’s been an uneventful spring in Littleton Cotterell. Though for Lady Hardcastle and her fiercely loyal lady’s maid Flo, at least there are the provincial delights of the village’s inaugural art exhibition—and bicycle race—to look forward to.

But at the exhibition opening, there’s a panicked shout of ‘Fire!’ In the confusion, the main attraction—an extremely expensive book—is stolen from under everyone’s nose, as is a valuable painting lent by Sir Hector Farley-Stroud. Then the race, which starts as a charming day out, ends in a shocking death. And to top it all off, the Farley-Strouds reveal they’re in debt and might lose their house.

The sleuthing duo soon find themselves torn between a murder investigation, an art theft mystery, and trying to help their pals. All with a suspicious figure from Flo’s past, a supercilious insurance investigator, and a pair of rather bizarre treasure hunters on the loose…

I continue to enjoy this series about Lady Hardcastle and her lady's maid Florence. A lot of the serie's charm lies in the main characters and the repartee between them. As I've probably said before, I'm also drawn to it because of my own family history research to do with my grandmother's older sister who worked as lady's maid back in those days as well. [Her background less adventurous as Flo's, and as far as I know she was not involved in any murder investigations - but still... ;) ]

 

The Brewery Murders by J.R. Ellis
A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, Book 9
Audio book narrated by: Michael Page
Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
Release date: 09-28-23 

Publisher's summary

An award-winning beer worth killing for. Can DCI Oldroyd find the killer before last orders?

Steeped in a history of award-winning Yorkshire ale, the town of Markham boasts not one but two breweries. Richard Foster runs one; his sister, Emily, along with her partner, Janice, runs the other. And not without some resentment.

The unwelcome return of the town’s former bad boy, Brendan Scholes, threatens to ignite the sibling rivalry further. Scholes claims to have found the long-lost secret recipe to the beer that made Richard and Emily’s father famous, and he wants money.

But it isn’t long before Scholes’ body is found floating in a fermentation tank at one of the breweries, his head caved in by a hammer. DCI Oldroyd and Andy Carter are called in to investigate the murder, and there’s no shortage of suspects.

As rumours of the possible existence of a recipe for the famous beer spread against a backdrop of growing homophobia and misogyny, tempers run high. With Markham’s beer industry at stake, a killer on the loose and the town’s residents out for blood, Oldroyd needs to solve the murder before someone else is killed…

This is another series with quite a few books published in a rather short time. And this one too relies a good deal on its sympathetic main charachters - who in this case are police officers in contemporary Yorkshire. As I'm not a beer drinker myself, this particular installment may not be remembered by me as my favourite in the series; but as usual the story is excellently narrated by Michael Page, making the most of the Yorkshire accent. 

Something else these two series have in common is that besides the Kindle books not being all that expensive, they also always (so far) offer the Audible version at a real bargain price if you buy the e-book as well. And I really appreciate when I can alternate as a I please between reading with my eyes open or closed! :)