The Fatal Flying Affair

A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 7

By: T E Kinsey

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's Summary

August 1911. Emily Hardcastle and her inimitable lady’s maid Florence Armstrong are enjoying a fine summer until Harry, Lady H’s brother, turns up out of the blue with a mystery for them to solve.

A routine parachute test at a local aeroplane factory has gone horribly wrong - with pilot Dickie Dupree plummeting to his death. Harry is certain there is more to this ‘tragic accident’ than meets the eye, having discovered that someone at the airfield is leaking top secret intelligence to foreign rivals.

In between strolls to the Dog & Duck and planning for the annual village show, the daring duo dust off the Crime Board and go undercover at Bristol Aviation. With international powers investing heavily in aeronautics, the stakes are high - sky high - and the suspects soon mount up.

Can Lady Hardcastle find the culprit before someone else falls down dead?

©2020 T E Kinsey (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic Reviews

Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award

“This audiobook should have come with a warning: Listen at your own risk. If others try to pause it, you may snap their heads off in frustration. As Lady Hardcastle and her lady's maid, Flo, return to spying for England in the summer of 1911, narrator Elizabeth Knowelden enhances the story full of witticisms and a clever plot by immersing listeners in the lives of these two characters. Listeners will catch Flo's excitement as she discovers that her newest job requires investigation at an airfield where someone was recently killed.” --AudioFile Magazine

Wonderful as Usual But Don’t Change the Series!

I have been anxiously waiting for this book to be released. I enjoyed it as I hoped I would like the previous books. I listened to it twice already. Elizabeth Knowelden performed excellent as usual. The storyline was captivating as usual. I had thought how neat it would be to hear some of Lady Hardcastle and Flo’s past adventures as government agents or their experiences during their escape from China in future books but I really didn’t want them to be government agents again. That would have changed the whole character or nature of the books. As retired agents, they would be free to go and do whatever without being under anybody’s thumb, especially the government’s. I like how they became involved in the mysteries through personal involvement with people in their everyday life. For example, how they met Skins and his band and invited them into their home and became good friends. I don’t think it would have played out naturally if they were government agents. As government agents, this would become strictly a spy series and it would change my interest in the series. There were versatility in the previous books that I foresee may become lost in future books as it transitions into a spy series. I love this series!! Please don’t change it. It has everything that I like in a mystery story, it’s clean and wholesome, it has humor, wonderful human interactions, great multi-level plots, versatile storyline, and the solutions that you can’t easily guess within the first half of the book or until it’s revealed. Please don’t change the series!

Wonderful

I’ve listened to each book in the series twice and have waited patiently for six months for this. Worth the wait. I love these characters and the narration is always spot on.

Great book and narrator!

T E Kinsey can’t write the Lady Hardcastle books fast enough ! They are a fun listen with much dry humor! The narration is spot on! Keep them coming!

Wonderful addition to the series!

I love the Lady Hardcastle series, and The Fatal Flying Affair is a wonderful addition! The narrator is absolutely wonderful, keeping the voices and accents consistent through every book. I confess that I have been waiting for this book to be released, and downloaded it the moment I could. This book is a delightful mystery, sans-gore. Highly recommended!

Excellent reading and story

Loved it!! Would order again. His books are very entertaining and informative. Good performance by this reader.

Well Done!!

Another entertaining and well done, enjoyable story! Love the Nanette and repartee between Hardcastle and Armstrong. Great narration!

Thoroughly Entertaining!

Another great entry in this wonderful series.The narrator is excellent and brings the story and characters to life. Looking forward to the next book.

Love this series

Bring on some more they end too quickly and then we wait! Looking forward to the next

Funny and superb series.

I have listened to every book in this series, and I love it. The characters are like an old friend to me and I often find myself"lol" to their latest exploits.
The narrator is Magnificent and has all characters" voiced" to perfection.
I will be continuing with the series.

Another spectacular mystery!

I absolutely love this series! Lady Hardcastle & Flo’s banter is top notch. Of course, the banter between the “Feather-stone-huff” siblings & Flo is also delightful. As for the over all story... it was another well done piece of Whodunit writing.
The small tidbit about Skins’ Maloney only made me more impatient to read The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds due out in March.

Boring

Loved the rest but this one felt like it was phoned in. What a pity.

Joyful

I look forward to each new Lady Hardcastle and Flo adventure with associated news of family, friends and conspirators. I especially like all the careful detail hidden amongst the hilarious crime-stopping. All over far too quickly... Off for another listen.

Another wonderful adventure!

Just love this gentle, fun mystery ... how can you not smile all the way through.

easy comfortable read

wonderful, relaxing oldie worldie story that transports one away from all our cares and woes, especially in this awful pandemic. escapism is the thing here. great stuff,. need more!!

Nice

This was a nice enough story but not a patch on the first couple of books in this series . I think the author is enamoured of his creation , Florence Armstrong.
The story is about her , what she said , where she went and what she did . Oh and Lady Hardcastle appeared occasionally too .
I miss the original dynamic , banter and camaraderie of the original books .

Enjoyable

I really enjoy the Lady Hardcastle books and after listening to an intense book this book was a breath of fresh air. I am glad to see Lady H and Flo getting back in to the spying again. Its a good story that keeps you guessing I love the chemistry between Lady H and Flo and the humour.
Elizabeth Knowelden is brilliant and to me she is Flo.

Good continuation of the series

These books are a nice bit of escapism. I like that there is no swearing, occultism or sex. They are just a pleasant story that gives you a giggle. The relationship between Flo and Lady Hardcastle is pleasant and fun. I’ve dropped it down a star (4 not 5) just because the author doesn’t seem to grasp there is more than one term for “said” a “replied, asked, retorted or exclaimed” would be welcome once in a while. That’s my only niggle. Overall a good buy and a worthwhile listen.

Still flying way above other period mysteries

I love these mysteries & thoroughly recommend them. I usually give them 5 stars & although I really enjoyed this, it lacked something the earlier ones had, still recommend it highly though! But listen to the earlier books 1st as there are spoilers otherwise!

smasher.

yet another smasher for T E kinsey with Elizabeth Knowelden knocking it out of the park yet again. I never tire of hearing about the good old tiny servant and the adventures of Lady Hardcastle!

Amazing ( no spoilers )

I love this series both the books and the audio version the narrator is fantastic and does all the voices just as I imagine