Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they've just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life. Few authors have had the success T E Kinsey did with his first novel, A Quiet Life in the Country, the first entry in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery series. Presenting us with the Lady herself, an eccentric widow accompanied her maid and confidante in 1908 England, the story follows a murder investigation in the countryside, one the police are very close to bungling up. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor