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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…
November 1911. 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. When other matters get in
the way of Inspector Sunderland overseeing the case himself, he
asks the ever-resourceful Lady H to keep a watchful eye on the
suspects-and his police colleagues. Rustling up some cunning
disguises of their own, she and Flo are soon in deep cover among
the cast and crew, pulling back the curtain on some shocking
secrets and rivalries... The problem is, everyone seems to have a
motive, and everyone seems to have an alibi...In this locked-room
mystery in which nothing is as it seems, the amateur sleuths need
to put on the performances of their lives if they're to stand a
chance of shining a spotlight on the truth...
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?
August 1911. 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.
A routine parachute test at a local aeroplane factory has gone
horribly wrong-with pilot Dickie Dupree plummeting to his death.
Harry is certain there is more to this 'tragic accident' than meets
the eye, having discovered that someone at the airfield is leaking
top secret intelligence to foreign rivals. In between strolls to
the Dog & Duck and planning for the annual village show, the
daring duo dust off the Crime Board and go undercover at Bristol
Aviation. With international powers investing heavily in
aeronautics, the stakes are high-sky high-and the suspects soon
mount up. Can Lady Hardcastle find the culprit before someone else
falls down dead?
Late October 1909, and the season of ghouls and things that go bump
in the night has descended on the village of Littleton Cotterell.
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. With the police left scratching their heads, Lady
Hardcastle calls upon her amateur sleuthing skills to launch an
investigation, with Flo's able assistance. Surrounded by suspects
both human and supernatural, Lady Hardcastle must use a little
trickery of her own to unmask the murderer.
Spring, 1909, and 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. Armed with wit and whimsy, not to mention Florence's mean
right hook, the pair set out to discover what really happened and
why. Was it poison or just ill luck? As they delve further into
their investigation, they encounter a theft where nothing is
stolen, a seance with a troubled ghost and an ever-increasing
number of Spencer's family and friends who might just have motive
for murder. One thing's for sure: Lady Hardcastle has a mystery on
her hands.
January 1910. 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. Evidence at the scene makes Lizzie Worrel's
innocence difficult to believe, and with the police treating it as
an open-and-shut case of arson, Lady Hardcastle faces a barrage of
resistance as she tries to dig out the truth. With her trusted maid
and confidante, the formidable Flo, Lady Hardcastle sets off in
pursuit of the truth as time runs out for the accused suffragette.
Was she set up? And if so, is the real culprit a traitor to the
cause-or part of a darker conspiracy?
Missing diamonds. Mysterious deaths. And all that jazz. London,
1925. With their band the Dizzy Heights, jazz musicians Ivor
'Skins' Maloney and Bartholomew 'Barty' Dunn are used to
improvising as they play the Charleston for flappers and toffs, but
things are about to take a surprising turn. Superintendent
Sunderland has had word that a deserter who stole a fortune in
diamonds as he fled the war is a member of the Aristippus private
members' club in Mayfair-where the Dizzy Heights have a residency.
And the thief is planning to steal a hoard of jewels hidden there
under the cover of a dance contest. As mutual pal Lady Hardcastle
has suggested, Skins and Dunn are perfectly placed to be
Sunderland's eyes and ears-and Skins's wife Ellie soon lends a hand
with a bit of light snooping. But the stakes change dramatically
when a mysterious death at the club brings a sinister note to the
investigation. With the dance contest fast approaching, the trio
must solve the mystery of the missing diamonds, unmask the
murderer, and prevent more deadly crimes-all without missing a
beat.
July 1910. 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. The first to
disappear is Dr Goddard, a scientist doing something terribly
top-secret for the government. Gone too are his strongbox and its
mysterious contents. By the time Lady Hardcastle has questioned the
horde of international guests, her number-one suspect has been
dispatched in grisly circumstances-and then the others start
vanishing too. As the case begins to look like a matter of national
security, Lady Hardcastle takes advice from her brother in the
secret service. But could there be an even more personal connection
at play? To solve the case, Lady Hardcastle may face a shocking
discovery of her own.
September 1909, and 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... Closer investigation reveals that the
driver's car was sabotaged-and the driver murdered. The local
constabulary are quick to dismiss the case, but Flo and Lady
Hardcastle are determined to find out just who has committed this
dastardly act, and why. As the pair begin to make enquiries of Lord
Riddlethorpe's servants and guests, it seems that, below stairs and
above, there is more to this case than meets the eye. And, even in
the quiet of the countryside, death is always just around the bend.
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. Revised edition: This edition of A Quiet Life In The
Country includes editorial revisions.
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