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Quiet Life in the Country 25%

Very entertaining cozy murder mystery.  Lady Hardcastle (Emily) and her lady's maid Florence Armstrong go for a walk in their quiet country village and discover a dead body--a man hanging from a tree.  Both are more than up to the moment, neither expressing much emotion or shock.  Stiff upper lip and all that.  The "suicide" they quickly reveal to the police, is really a murder.  The police find out the dead man had had an argument in the bar earlier.  They arrest the other man, and they're done.  But our ladies are just beginning.

So, it's fun, but . . . the relationship between the two women is a bit hard to take.  Flo and Emily get along swimmingly, bantering with one another, each apparently content.  The class distinction, when they are alone, disappears.  In public, it reappears.  All very smooth.  Now the newly "rich" don't possess this ability to be great employers of servants, so they order they servants around and are generally bullies.  Nostalgia for a never-was time when aristocrats looked out for the world and all was charming.  Criticism done, now I'll just enjoy.

Food and drink feature prominently, both women happy to indulge.  Wry humor is the dominant feature of their conversation.

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