I thoroughly enjoyed another book following along with Lady Hardcastle, Flo and another murder they solved. I enjoyed the adding of Flo's twin sister and reading about their stories, as children and the tricks that they played on family and friends.
Once I started reading, I found the book hard to put down. These stories are so entertaining and enjoyable and the characters come alive like old friends.

Another wonderful read by author T E Kinsey.

An Act of Foul Play by T.E. Kinsey
A very enjoyable addition to a cheery, charming series. The ladies use their acting skills to wangle their way into a theater group and solve a murder. Plus, we get to meet Flo’s twin sister!

Once again T. E. Kinsey presents a lovely book with the couple Lady Emily Hardcastle and her maid/companion Florence Armstrong. This time the murder happens at a theatre in Bristol and the inquiries are for too long a time conducted by an incompetent detective till Emily, Flo and her twin sister Gwen take over. We meet the characters at the theatre and a new friend of Lady Hardcastle.
I enjoy these mysteries, the different characters, the banter between the two lady detectives, English life and the surrounding people in town. Of course the mystery is in the background, as usual in cosy mysteries, but the rest of the story is enjoyable. I thought the fun was sometimes spilling over to excessive quirkiness, and I would also have liked more clues to the mystery. All in all a nice read again.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Having thoroughly enjoyed all of the books in the Lady Hardcastle series so far, I knew that An Act of Foul Play would be a great read. I adore Lady Hardcastle and Flo Armstrong’s characters, their relationship and the comedic dialogue they throw at each other, but I found this plot a little uninspiring compared to past storylines and it seemed a long, slow wind up that led to a very short, albeit satisfying, conclusion.

I think that as a standalone book, it leaves a lot unexplained and you really don’t get to experience the full joy of our protagonists’ relationship, so I would highly recommend that readers start from book 1. You will be in for a real treat if you like quirky Miss Marple-esque mysteries with plenty of humour. 4.5*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

I suppose it's impossible to hit 9 homeruns in a row....
I still adore this author and this series, but I found this latest entry to be a little flat. The convoluted circumstances leading Emily and Flo to take on this latest mystery were a bit of a stretch. A couple leads or minor storylines were ignored. The ratatat banter felt a little stale. And I realize the limits of first person storytelling means that we can only get the perspective of the narrator, and sometimes another POV is necessary, but I thought the way the author chose to tell the story near the end of the book (with multiple POVs) was clumsy and jarring and really broke up the narrative for me. These books have never been presented (as far as I can remember) as Flo talking to the reader, or writing a journal to be read by someone later on, but all of a sudden, that's what happened because that was the only way to describe the events towards the end. It felt clunky, and a very rare miss.

Things I do appreciate in every book: the author is so skillful at reminding us who all the characters are, without making us feel like he is. It's a valuable tool in a mystery, since they usually have a pretty large cast of characters. Also, I love the author's note at the end of every book. I read every word of it and appreciate all the detail and research!

My thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lady Hardcastle mysteries are always compelling, witty, solid, and highly entertaing. A solid and well developed mystery that kept me guessing, lots of humour.
I was happy to catch up with the fleshed out characters
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

The latest (9th) book in the Lady Hardcastle mystery series featuring Lady Emily Hardcastle and her maid and trusted sidekick Florence "Flo" Armstrong. Characters with a past largely hinted at and they are clearly not to be messed with. Now retired to a quiet village Littleton Cottrell they have taken to sleuthing and helping the police and in particular particulat Inspector Suderland.

in this book the ladies are watching a comedy play by The Bartlett Players at a theatre in Bristol but when the curtain rises on the second act an actor Paul Singleton is found dead on the stage with a knife in his back. Also at the theatre is Inspector Sunderland who carries out the initial analysis of the crime scene but is moved on to another crime leaving a lazy fumbling Inspecror Wyatt to . Lady Bickle a friend of the theatre company and Lady Hardcastle asks lady Hardcastle to help the investigation and Sunderland also asks the ladies to investigate too. A further murder takes place in a downstairs props room almost a week later.

The murder is clearly a member of the cast and crew. This makes for yet another amusing yarn. A cozy mystery series that gets better with each book. I highly recommend this book. This can be read in isolation. However, I would recommend the reader read the whose series as there are wonderful ongoing characters not to be missed.

Thasks to Netgalley UK and Amazon Publishing UK for an ARC copy in exchange for a fair unbiased review.

TE Kinsey gives us Flo and Lady Hardcastle fans a straight banger in this theater troop-based mystery - I hope we see much more of Georgie and Gwen in the future. While we don't dwell, I mean that's not totally the point of these books, on the practicalities of the murder (especially the second one) I didn't feel bamboozled by the solution even if some of the meaningful clues are a skoosh too lucky for my taste. The author definitely makes the reader want to visit Bristol, Crane's, and Le Quai and, if I could make a suggestion, I wouldn't mind a little more description of foods, clothing, etc. I feel like there was more of these types of details in the earlier books, which I enjoyed, and I think those kind of descriptions are a particular strength of the author. It's clear that the research is being done so why not flaunt it? A strong recommend.

Good read, so very witty. I constantly wish, I too, could be part of their circle. This mystery had plenty of twists and red herrings to keep me in my toes and it was fun to have a visit from the sis.

A wonderfully light-hearted cosy mystery. I loved the interactions between Miss Armstrong and Lady Hardcastle. Along with the supporting cast of friends, the dynamic duo set out to solve that murder of a thespian which happened during the interval of a play that they were watching.
It was the first time I came across this author and I am definitely watching out for more of Kinsey's work.

An Act of Foul Play is Tim Kinsey’s latest Lady Hardcastle Mystery. Lady Emily Hardcastle and her maid, Florence Armstrong are celebrating Emily’s birthday with a trip to the theatre. Unfortunately, when the play restarts after the interval, there’s a real body on the stage. Inspector Sunderland’s not convinced that Inspector Wyatt, who’s been assigned to the case, is competent and so he asks Emily and Flo to find out what happened.

The book is a delight. It proceeds at a cracking pace with lots of lovely red herrings. No, I hadn’t worked out whodunnit, but I had a great time building theories and then seeing them dissipate into thin air a few pages later. The best part of Kinsey’s books (apart from the bits where Flo uses her ju-jitsu or deadly knife-throwing skills on large villains, obviously) is the banter between Emily and Flo. However, I now have a new favourite part: the banter between Flo and Gwen. Who’s Gwen? You’ll have to read the book to find out but here’s a clue: she’s Welsh, just like Flo. Sometimes, when I’m reading the Lady Hardcastle books, I just hug myself with delight. What larks, Pip!

#AnActofFoulPlay #NetGalley

I found this interesting, and the mystery kept me guessing. I liked the characters and hope to read more in the series.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review

Of course Lady Hardcastle and Flo don't cause strange things to happen around them but somehow they are again caught up in a murder. This time, it's Lady Hardcastle's birthday (44th) and they are attending the theater with a large group and enjoying themselves quite thoroughly. But, after a long intermission, the curtain rises on the second act but one of the four actors on the stage is dead, stabbed. It seems like only the other actors would have had the chance to do the deed.
They are joined in this adventure by Flo's twin sister who is taking a vacation while her husband is out of town for the army. It was nice to have a new face in the adventures and to see Flo and Lady Hardcastle work with someone who wasn't the Inspector.

Four stars
This book comes out June 7, 2022
Follows Rotten to the Core
ARC kindly provided Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “An Act of Foul Play.” All opinions and comments are my own.

Lady Hardcastle’s birthday celebration -- a night at the theatre in Bristol, no Littleton-Cotterell this time -- is interrupted by a murder onstage. Luckily, Inspector Sunderland is in the theatre party and able to begin the investigation chop chop. Handy, that. And Lady H and her “tiny servant” won’t be far behind in “An Act of Foul Play,” the ninth in the long-running historical mystery series by T.E. Kinsey.

Count on banter being the order of the day, too, in between our daring duo figuring out who had it in for thespian Paul Singleton. They’ve got help this time -- Flo’s twin sister Gwenith Evans has come for a little visit. If you don’t think this will figure in the plot, you deserve to turn in your mystery- book-reading card.

There’s initial sleuthing to be done, undercover as it were, where they get all sorts of ideas and find out about jealousy and whatnot in the ranks. A member of the company gets arrested, but Lady H and Flo know there’s more detecting (and more witty banter) to be had. Oh, and as a side note, somebody’s stealing from the local pub. They agree to look into this, too. With satisfactory results, of course. Author Kinsey makes sure that no turn is unstoned and all that.

Then, a stagehand is murdered. First thought -- a blackmailer? I’ve been reading murder mysteries far too long. Our author understands -- blackmail it is. But of course, there’s always more to the story, and readers are kept working alongside Lady H and her handy helper Flo (with sister Gwen’s assistance) to ferret out more reasons for why Paul Singleton had to be eliminated. As always, clues abound between all that the ladies discuss in their own inimitable fashion, so pay attention!

And then we get the big twist -- such fun. Lady H explains How It Was All Done. Now she just needs to get the guilty one to ‘fess up. A trap is set, and Flo is in at the rather exciting finish. Another very satisfactory finish.

An Author’s Note explains more about the making of the story, the setting, and other inclusions. It’s enlightening and definitely gives you a feel for the theatre setting. “An Act of Foul Play” sees Lady Hardcastle and Flo back once again at the top of their game, ensuring that no one gets away with murder.

Hours spent alongside Flo and Lady Hardcastle are never wasted. Once again a murder instigates the sleuthing duo to pull out the crime board and snoop around...this time in a theatre and its troupe. There are a handful of new characters who add humor and new insights to the happenings. Overall, it was a delightful jaunt with two of my favorite fictional characters and I laughed out loud at the best paragraph ever written to explain a person's level of drunkenness.

An Act of Foul Play takes one of my favorite investigative duos into the world of the theater, and although the pacing of the story dragged a bit from time to time, it was still a treat to watch Lady Hardcastle and Florence Armstrong work their usual magic. This time, readers also make the acquaintance of Flo's twin sister, Gwenith, and she made an entertaining addition to the witty repartee.
 
Hardcastle and Armstrong make short work of the bumblings of Inspector Wyatt while Gwenith proves to be an important part of the solution to the mystery of who's stealing booze from the local pub, the Dog and Duck. 
 
As this series has progressed, author T.E. Kinsey has not only charmed me with his characters and their wonderful dialogue, he's given me glimpses into various aspects of English life in the 1910s. This is a series that never fails to put a smile on my face, and I've even added a word to my vocabulary after reading An Act of Foul Play. I would imagine that most of us titivate ourselves before leaving the house to go to work or shopping. I just didn't know that that was what I was doing.

Anyone who enjoys light-hearted historical mysteries really needs to make the acquaintance of Lady Hardcastle and her "lady's maid, part-time spy and full-time nosy parker," Florence Armstrong. I wouldn't dream of missing any of their adventures.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS QUASI-SPOILERS

I love Lady Hardcastle and Flo Armstrong. Love, love, love them! That said, I think this book ended a little less "spectacularly" than I would have hoped. I think I was a little disappointed because I happened to be reading this book at the same time I was listening to an audiobook by another British mystery author, and the two endings were EERILY SIMILAR. I mean... so similar I felt the need to mention the similarities to my 11-year-old. I HONESTLY wondered if both authors (same genre, same month of release for most if not all of their books) got some kind of challenge that said, "Write a British mystery novel that ends like this." In case you're curious, I read this at the same time as the latest Jim Oldroyd mystery by J. R. Ellis, "The Railway Murders." Had I not listened to the end of Ellis' audiobook earlier that same day, I would probably have found the end of this book to be more satisfying.

What I DID like about this book was the introduction of Flo's twin, Gwen. I thought the author was really clever changing things to include her (e.g. putting Emily's two-seater Rolls Royce in the mechanic's shop and having them use a 'loaner' so Gwen could join them in the car). She was a welcome addition to the "cast."

I want more Lady Hardcastle and Flo.

Lady Hardcastle and Flo are celebrating Lady Hardcastle with with Lady Bickle who has suggested a play at Duke's Theatre. As the curtains open for the second act, they notice a man lying on his back with a dagger in his chest with convincing blood around it. Of course, Inspector Sunderland asks for Lady H and Flo to help, especially since Inspector Wyatt who is handling the case keeps arresting one of the actors without a good reason. Flo’s twin sister, Gwen, is visiting, and she helps as well. It appears at first that almost anyone can be the killer. The two understudies would love to have the leading parts. When one of the stage hands is found murdered in a room in the basement, they realize he probably saw something during the first murder.

In the middle of all this, at the Dog & Duck, they are told that someone has been pilching booze, usually on Thursday night. Gwen and Flo solve that mystery by dressing alike. The culprit doesn’t realize that Flo has a twin, so they figure how to catch the culprit.

Meanwhile, the theatre killer is more difficult to catch. However, after they realize they’ve got the timeline wrong and at least one of them has lost their alibi! Will they figure it out before someone finishes off one of them?

This is a fun addition to the series.

In the new book, number nine in the series, we've reached 1911 and our intrepid duo are at the theatre celebrating Lady Hardcastle's birthday when murder victim is discovered on stage at the start of the second half. Of course they're soon investigating and trying to discover what's going on behind the scenes of the theatre company that could have led to murder. I read it across about 24 hours and really enjoyed it - it was just the break from the day to day that I needed this week. I don't think you need to have read the rest of the series to enjoy it, although if you have it will obviously work better for you.

It's not often that a series is just as enjoyable by book number nine as it was at the beginning. But T.E. Kinsey continues to give us more hilarity from the fabulous sleuthing duo Lady Hardcastle and Florence Armstrong. This time, there's even a guest appearance from Flo's double!

The theater setting of "An Act of Foul Play" felt like a unique glimpse into that time period and provided an interesting cast of characters, to say the least! I look forward to seeing where their tenth adventure takes Lady Hardcastle and Florence Armstrong.

If you enjoy titles set in the early 1900s with theater and a bit of mystery, be sure to check out "In Spotlight and Shadow" by Rachel Scott McDaniel, as well.

Content Warning: More sensitive readers may find a few of the jokes a bit more vulgar than normal for the series.