Death By Picture Show?

A PICTURE OF MURDER
Lady Hardcastle and Flo Mystery # 4
T. E. Kinsey
Thomas & Mercer
October 22,2018


The fourth in the adventures of Lady Hardcastle and Flo takes us back to the quiet village of Littleton Cotterell in 1909 Gloucestershire. I say quiet, but Littleton Cotterell has been anything but quiet since the formerly globetrotting Lady Hardcastle and her "tiny servant," Flo Armstrong, settled there. Mysteries and murders have been plentiful, all needing the skills of the ladies to solve.

It's late October and with the advent of Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night, their friend and neighbor, Lady Farley-Stroud, wants to organize something special for the village. She has invited a producer of the new moving picture shows, Nolan Cheetham, and his actors to premiere his film in the village. The film is a ten-minute masterpiece entitled The Downfall of the Witch. Lady Hardcastle and Flo get involved when a fire in Lady Farley-Stroud's kitchen makes her unable to put the troupe up as planned, and Lady Hardcastle steps in to offer them accommodation. The film's showing is a huge success, despite noisy, bible-thumping protesters who think that moving pictures are the devil's workshop. The success of the show is dampened when one of the actors is murdered shortly after its premiere, in the same manner as in the film. Other deaths follow, and it will take all the ladies' skill to solve this convoluted puzzle.


A Picture of Murder is as delightful as its predecessors with quirky characters, a charming setting and a tricky puzzle to solve. The villagers, local police and household staff we have come to know make appearances, along with a pair of jazz musicians from an earlier book. We get the whole story behind Lady Hardcastle and Flo's journey through China and India, along with a foreshadowing of events to come. Flo even gets to demonstrate the martial arts skills she learned on those journeys while taking down the culprits. I especially love the friendship forged between Lady Hardcastle and Flo. They are nominally employer and servant but are more like sisters. These novels are perfect escape reads, and I recommend reading them in order to maximize the enjoyment. 

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley.com for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 4.5 Stars