MoonglotexasKel’s Review:
I love cosy mysteries as you can return to a familiar setting and characters and T.E. Kinsey has created a gem with this one! I love Lady Hardcastle and Flo and they are off on another mystery in “Rotten to the Core”!
A murder occurs right in their own little village this time and this one has a harvest theme. This one winds all over, it quite the tale! There are plenty of fun, light moments included in amongst the investigation.
It’s a four out of five (I found it a tad implausible at points) on the enJOYment scale! If you love historical cosy mysteries, don’t miss out on this series!
Ka’s Review:
I love this series. TE Kinsey has paired the key characters, Lady Hardcastle and Flo, so well that it is an effortless read when one joins them on their various capers.
I thoroughly enjoyed the theme of this story revolving as it did around the production of cider and the ancient order of the Weryers. I did find the motive behind the murders a bit of a stretch and the acceptance of Lady H’s and Flo’s questioning of all and sundry, by those interviewed and the police, a bit of a stretch. They also just seemed to be a little slow on the uptake at times.
There is an incident regarding a local and a ‘lift’ in Lady Hardcastle’s vehicle that had me literally laughing out loud. Thank you!
So this one is FOUR out of five for me. I look forward to reading the next in this whodunnit, fun series.
We received complimentary copies of the book from Amazon Publishing UK through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in these reviews are completely our own.
From the back cover:
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?
