The Burning Issue of the Day (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries #5) by T E Kinsey

I have really enjoyed this series and reviewed the older books here( do click on the covers  to read my earlier remarks!):

   

The book I am reviewing today is the fifth in the series:

Narrator : Elizabeth Knowlden

I told myself going into the book that I will listen to it with a suspicious bent of mind. I had to make sure I had not become complacent and just ‘like’ the book for liking’s sake or due to a misplaced sense of loyalty to Lady Hardcastle and her brilliant support system in the form of a tiny Welsh lady’s maid. Five minutes in as I was trying to stop myself from actually laughing (already!), I paused, surveyed my situation and let my husband decide if he found it even remotely hilarious. He had no prior knowledge of the dynamic duo or of their sense of humour (dry, sarcastic to the extreme and mostly random) but he admitted with a smile that it was some clever stuff. Since he only heard one chapter of a ten-minute duration, I took that as enough fortification to sail ahead with complete confidence that what I was finding funny was actually funny to someone besides me (I did that for a lot of the P.G.Wodehouse too).

The best and absolutely perfect part of this entire audiobook was the narration. Granted the author gave her the very best stuff to work with but her classy interpretation of tones as well as the fact that she did so many different voices for all the characters that I never doubted who I was listening to at any given time, even between a flurry of back and forths between people trying to be smarter/funnier than the other. I do not usually gush so much for anything (you can check by browsing other reviews) but this is one historical/cozy mystery that is definitely worth your time.

Moving on to the story, Lady Hardcastle and Flo are relaxing at home when a letter requests them for help clearing a friend’s name. They then set off on a systematic plan to figure out what actually happened. Inspector Sunderland makes his own appearance in this and I love the dynamics of the newer characters as well. Some people might find the repeated repetition or allusion to the past exploits of the duo slightly repetitive but considering the embellishment and the poking they do to each other, each retelling has a joy of its own. The author provides detailed information about the background of where and when the tale was based and this is something that should not be skipped. Since there are no spoilers (for the most part), you can even start at this book and then go back and read the rest of the series. I think this is the best of the lot so far mostly because the background that the plot is based in is highly interesting and can carry the tale even without the brilliant dialogues.

My last KU review was: The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

My queue now looks like this: