Emily, Lady Hardcastle and her maid, companion, and friend Flo work for an obscure spy agency for the British Empire. The stakes have never been higher than when they are asked to find and hopefully neutralize a group of supposed Serbian subversives, while providing security for a trade conference with a European power. The men there think they are a joke as does the director of their own agency. Sadly for the men the duo prove they are more than able to thwart the terrorist acts and assassination attempts of the group who may or not be Serbian and expose another group working against the country nearer home.
The banter between Emily and Flo and with Emily's brother Harry (who also works for the agency) is comic relief for a rather serious threat.
Always great fun visiting Emily and Flo and catching up with their family and friends.

4 stars

We are 11 books in and the Lady Hardcastle mysteries are just as delightful as ever! This installment of the cozy mystery series has Lady Hardcastle and her indefatigable maid Flo heading to London to stop an assassination attempt on the Austrian trade delegation.

Due to the series' timeline creeping closer to the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, this particular book feels a little less cozy as our dynamic duo deals with bomb threats, sexism from government officials, and the prospect of war breaking out at any moment. Kinsey does an excellent job of still including moments of camaraderie and humor amidst all of the tension, which honestly piqued my interest in this series again after finding the preceding book a tad too predictable.

Picking up a Lady Hardcastle mystery is always a pleasure and I cannot wait for Kinsey to continue sending our lady detectives on new missions across the British empire!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!