A Picture of Murder (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #4)
by T.E. Kinsey
narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden
My Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Historical Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Blurb:
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.
My Review
I’ve enjoyed the first three books in the series, so I decided to continue with book 4. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous ones. It has the same setting and likable characters as the first three books, but I was disappointed in the mystery and how it played out.
The mystery in this one just didn’t work for me. I kept feeling like something was off. Something kept bugging me about the mystery, but I couldn’t quite figure out what felt off about it. There was very little progression and I felt like Lady Hardcastle and the police didn’t get any closer to the truth and figuring out what was going on. Why the mystery felt off to me and why there was so little progress all made sense at the end when things got revealed. There were these small details that I figured would be important that led them to the right clue and then suddenly everything fell on it’s place, but it just felt more like a lucky coincidence they stumbled upon it. I just didn’t really like the twist and reveal. I felt like it was fresh and should’ve been interesting, but it just didn’t work for me. I thought the motive and means didn’t really make sense even with the explanation and it just didn’t feel plausible to me.
Like the previous books I enjoyed reading about Flo and Lady Hardcastle, their banter was fun as always. I did feel like it missed some of the charm the previous books had. I liked how we see a bit more of the other two servants and see them interact with Flo and learn a bit more about their personal situations. They mostly stayed in the background in the previous books, I liked seeing them have a bit more personality here.
There also is a visit from two side characters of the first book, which felt a bit random. The whole scene with Flo and Lady Hardcastle telling them how they met and about their spy past felt a bit off, most of these details have been subtly sprinkled throughout the previous books and this just felt weird to have them telling the whole story on page like that. There also was a hint about someone from their past, but that didn’t go anywhere, so maybe that’s a hint for future books.
The narrator again was a great fit for the story and I enjoyed the narration. The different voices she does really help me remember who is who and add personality to the characters.
To summarize: I’ve enjoyed this series so far, but this book didn’t quite work for me. I liked reading about Flo and Lady Hardcastle again, but the mystery in this one didn’t work for me. The mystery felt off to me and I couldn’t figure out why. There also wasn’t as much progress in the mystery throughout the book. This all makes sense at the ending, but I didn’t like the twist and even the motive and means just didn’t feel plausible to me. There are a few scenes that felt awkwardly interjected in the plot, although one might be a future plot point. I liked learning a bit more about the other servant characters in this book and give their characters more depth. The narrator was great. Not sure whether I’ll continue the series after this.
It’s been a while since I listened to this one, but I think some of what put you off distracted me, too, and I think the spy bit was dangling for a while. A fun series, for sure.
Do the books after this get better again? I was sad I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first 3 books. Good to know the spy bit stays dangling for a while.
Sorry to hear you didn’t like this one as much as you had hoped.
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It’s a shame as I enjoyed the first 3 books in the series, but this one just wasn’t as enjoyable for me.
A great review that clearly summed up your issues with this one. I’m a huge fan of Kinsey’s series, though I agree that the quality of the stories does vary somewhat. I think I gave the plot weaknesses more of a pass than you, because I just love the characters so much. However – yes – there are better books in the series.
I did enjoy the first three books in the series and I am hopeful from what other people have said as well that I will enjoy the later ones more too. I do agree that the characters are lovely, they just weren’t enough to fully compensate for the plot issues in this one for me.