Book Review: A Picture of Murder by TE Kinsey

I approached A Picture of Murder by TE Kinsey as a lover of cosy historical fiction and I found pretty much what I’d expect in this Edwardian whodunnit — something very frothy and folksy. It’s the fourth in the Lady Hardcastle mystery series and the first that I’ve read, but that didn’t matter, because it works well as a standalone. It’s a light-hearted and not-terribly credible romp through the Herefordshire countryside, where a visiting cast of a moving picture actors find themselves flung on Lady Hardcastle’s hospitality, and are bumped off one by one. It ends with a big twist. And that’s more or less what it has too offer. In that sense, it delivers.

The problem is that, for all that’s good about it, for me it falls just short of being a good book. The story is narrated by Lady Hardcastle’s/maid companion/fixer, and we learn early on that she and her employer have a complicated history in His Majesty’s service. There’s a diverse cast of characters, from the villagers to the visiting actors to the group of Bible-bashers protesting against the new development of moving pictures — but I didn’t feel that any off them were particularly well-developed. The villagers were simple-minded, the aristocracy overly jolly, the policemen bumbling, and the relationship between Armstrong and her employer felt far too flippant for the times, even allowing for the fact that the pair are deliberately set up as eccentric.

I did enjoy the plot, although the twist at the end stretched my credibility (and I was interested to see that the author’s note at the end conceded that the hook on which the plot was hung probably wouldn’t hold up). The conversation felt brittle in a sub-Wodehousian way, and I was reminded of Gilbert and Sullivan long before the first of several references to the Pirates of Penzance.

A Picture of Murder isn’t bad, by any means, and I feel a bit harsh giving it three stars (perhaps it was just shy of 3.5) . It’s just that it falls short in the key thing I look for in any murder mystery, which is believability and the ability to engage with well-rounded characters. Of course, that’s a personal thing and I'm sure many people will love it. I would certainly read more in the series, although there are authors whose approach to the genre whose books I would pick up first.

I received this book from Amazon Publishing via Netgalley in return for an honest review.