Cover Image: The Burning Issue of the Day

The Burning Issue of the Day

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Member Reviews

Really enjoyed this book. Great plot and engaging, believe characters. I was drawn right into the story. Would definitely recommend.

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These cozy’s are a fun read. You never know what Lady Hardcastle and her ladies maid, Florence Armstrong will get into next. When they are asked to prove Lizzie didn’t burn down the building, there is little evidence of her guilt or innocence. Little by little ideas take shape and they start their investigation.
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The Burning Issue of the Day is a must-read. It has all of the elements to make this one of my favorites.

Here we find Lady Hardcastle and Flo on the case to find a killer. It seems a journalist has been killed in a suspicious blaze. The suspect is someone from the group of suffragettes. The due detectives take the job of figuring out and proving that Lizzie is innocent.

The storyline is easy and fun to follow and the well-crafted characters are what make this a great read.

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I have really enjoyed all of T.E. Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle novels. They're an excellent, enjoyable read that always include a nice bit of humour combined with a good old fashioned 1900s murder mystery. I have really come to love these two self aware female protagonists. A wonderful installment in the series. I recommend wholeheartedly.

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I have always been a big fan of TE Kinsey’s books starring Lady Hardcastle and her trusty side Flo.
I particularly enjoyed this book and how it incorporated the history of the Suffragette movement in England at the time. And of course, where would we be without a murder in the novel!! Having found the last few books a bit repetitive, this one brought back the reason why I enjoyed Kinsey’s style of writing.
Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.

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Another wonderful adventure in the Lady Hard castle series.So well written great characters involving plots.A cozy read I curl up with each time a new book comes out.Highly recommend this entertaining series,#netgalley#amazonuk

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My favourite companions in crime are back on the case, this time involving the death of a suffrogette.

As always an intriguing, and involving investigation ensues, with a well balanced amount of humour along the way.

This is a delightful addition to this cozy crime series, which can be enjoyed regardless of whether you've read any of the previous books

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I have been following this series for quite some time now. Lady Hardcastle and Flo form a really good detective pair. Their camaraderie is well depicted in each of the stories. Women's Suffragette, arson and murder and a whole lot of driving around in the rover, the duo have an adventurous time.

However, the charm was a tad missing. The first two books were simply perfect but I find something amiss since book 3 - I quite cannot point out. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Gunther is yet to come into picture and I am pretty sure that things are going to get murkier once he's in town.

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This is proving to be a very enjoyable series. I received this one from Netgalley but, before I read it, I finished all the earlier ones first. The relationship between eccentric widow Lady Hardcastle and her maid Miss Armstrong is a joy, and the trickle of backstory elements always leaves the reader wanting a bit more. I was pretty much hooked from book one, as Lady H and Flo find themselves a new house and set about furnishing it (including with daily help). The exchanges between them are always beautifully judged - for instance, Flo rarely refers to her employer as "my Lady" except when she disapproves of her actions, they bicker over who is to drive the new car, and so on. One has the sense of a long-established relationship based on mutual respect and affection.
With the fifth in the series, the author takes the light-hearted amateur detectives - we know by this time that their background has been much more serious, but they have retired from living on their wits in the service of HMG - and gives them something a bit more serious to get their teeth into. A death has occurred which may have been the result of suffragist sabotage, and a young suffragette is on trial for her life. Can they save her, despite the opposition of the (male) Bristol establishment? I felt that the author genuinely wanted to talk about the suffragist cause and that it wasn't simply a subject to hang a mystery on.
Kinsey introduces a new character in this book, the journalist Diana Caudle, who despite initially clashing with Lady Hardcastle, looks set to put in appearances in future episodes. I see there is another on its way - good-oh!

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Lady Hardcastle and her sidekick(servant) Flo team up to save a suffragette from a murder charge in The Burning Issue of the Day. Excellent historical mystery.

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I am a fan of cozy mysteries of all varieties. I love the quirkiness combined with intrepid amateur sleuths. I was not familiar with this author or this series, so the book came as a delightful surprise. British cozies seem to definitely have a different flavor than American ones, and frankly, I revel in the distinctions between them and enjoy both. British cozies always seem to have a dry rather than open wit and characters who are strongly individual in their quirkiness. In this book, I quite enjoyed the relationship between Lady H and her maid. I also really liked the use of a newspaper article to set the scene for the entire novel. Great way to give backstory. I liked the historical element of the story as well. I have done some research on the suffragist movement in the United States, so it added an interesting element to this story for me. I am curious now to investigate some other books in this series.

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There was intrigue in the story and a pace which kept me wanting to come back to it every night... Definitely recommend if you love Historical Fiction !

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It’s 1910 and retired former spy, Lady Hardcastle, receives a note from a member of the Women’s Suffrage movement in Bristol, England. It seems a little-known journalist, Christian Brookfield, has been found dead in a burned down building. Lizzie Worrel, a Woman’s Suffrage supporter, is arrested under arson and murder charges. Lady Hardcastle is famous for her sleuthing skills and is called upon to help clear Ms. Worrel’s innocent name, especially as the police have called off their investigation since they think they have caught the culprit. So Lady Hardcastle and her lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, set off in the Lady’s Rover 6, a unique open car that requires a great deal of energy to start and proper car wear of googles, cap and scarves to withstand the elements. The pair are a joy to read about as their banter and witty comments are highly amusing. They certainly consume enough tea, scones, sandwiches and cakes to fuel any activity in which they engage. They set out “to poke the hornet’s nest with a good, stout stick and see what happens.” The plot focuses on a certain rundown area of Bristol and an attempt to make the merchants sell so that the area can be rebuilt as a successful upscale business development. Money must be obtained and the deceased but perceptive Brookfield had run into a scheme devised to illegally obtain funds for this scheme. It also appears that there’s a Men’s Anti-Suffragette Movement group whose designs inadvertently wind up involving Ms. Worrel. The Burning Issue of the Day… is a highly pleasing, clever novel sure to satisfy both mystery and historical fiction fans!

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Lady Hardcastle and her Lady's maid Florence are at it again solving anther mystery while getting involved in the Women's Sufferage movement. This fourth installment in the series is just as charming and as the previous books with a wealth of interesting characters and witty dialogue. Always look forward to these books and the latest adventures of Lady Hardcastle and Florence.

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For the fifth book in the series, Kinsey only seems to be slipping slightly. I think the amount of characters distracted from the actual plot. Instead of "revisiting old favorites" the spots when other characters from previous books were mentioned disengaged readers from the new characters. Every time, even when vital to the plot, I had to re-focus and make it a point to remember what was going on that made me feel like I was reading a Game of Thrones novel rather than a beloved mystery.

Despite the distractions, Flo and Lady Hardcastle were impeccable as ever and I can't wait for the next in the series!

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Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Although this was not my favorite Lady Hardcastle mystery, it was still a fun read. Highly recommend this series!

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Ive read this entire series and i love it!! Its a cozy yet sassy murder series with characters that are actually incredibly likeable and interesting. So good i may read again!

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I’ve come to really love these books—especially the two lead characters—and look forward to the next one. This may be my favorite so far. It drags a little in the middle—the author, bless him, includes so much interesting information that sometimes it bogs down the story a bit—but still manages to be a fun, funny, fast and feisty read.
The two main characters—especially the martial-arts, knife-wielding, door-(and head-) cracking ‘maid servant,’ Armstrong, who narrates the story, and the relationship they have (and quick-witted, smart-mouth dialogue between them) are wonderful. And the various characters they encounter—and their evolving relationships with them—equally so. The books manage to be remarkably informative without being pedantic—and the author makes it clear where he’s taken liberties.
This installment, with its central topic of women’s right to vote, is especially timely now. (Isn’t that sad?!) I highly recommend this book to any lover of a good mystery, smart (and beautiful) women, and intelligent, clever writing.

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This was the first book of the Lady Hardcastle series I have read, so I cannot compare it to the previous 4 in my review. It has enough hints about the main characters' past for a new reader to read as a stand alone book. It was a pleasant read, but did not keep me up at night trying to get to the end. The author aims for quaint and witty but falls short - more Enid Blyton than Agatha Christie, sadly. Flo and Emily are described like they are superheroes rather than women with special skills, but in their actions seem bumbling comics. What detective worth their salt goes around giving every Tom, Dick and Harry and blow by blow account of all their findings - in this case, straight to the bad guys' spy!

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It's always a great joy to read another Lady Hardcastle mystery, and this was a really fun one. I love these characters and spending time with them again in this adventure was like seeing old friends. Their escapades to solve this mystery are clever, witty, and compelling in a brilliantly light and enchanting way. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who loves mystery, historical fiction, and character driven series. Great fun.

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