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Tim Kinsey

@tekinsey.uk
628 followers 288 following 275 posts

Mystery Writer. Dreadful Drummer. Proudly responsible for the Lady Hardcastle series. www.tekinsey.uk

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 05/10/2026
Behind the scenes with a cosy crime writer
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 19/09/2026
Flashback to 2013 for no reason. Me and my many chins playing the drums with Macaroni Penguins at the Kingswood Village Hall.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/09/2026
By all means feel free to file this under "no one cares except you, Tim" but I broke the truss rod cover on my SE Silver Sky so I printed a new one... but in the shape of the cover on the full-fat American model. It feels deliciously naughty.
A photo of the headstock of a PRS SE Silver Sky showing the replacement truss rod cover. It's less interesting than you might hope.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 12/08/2026
The next Lady Hardcastle book, The Quarry Mystery, is available for pre-order on your local version of Amazon. eBook, paperback and audiobook - 19 January 2027. Murder, quarries, dinosaurs – all the usual stuff. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H5RQNLBG
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/05/2026
You know that book I've been telling you about? Murder on the Rocks? It's out today. I just thought I'd mention it.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/05/2026
Murder on the Rocks - coming next week
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/04/2026
My copies of 'Murder on the Rocks' arrived today. I shot an unboxing video (it's the law or something) but, as usual, it was utterly ghastly. Here, instead, is a still image of the book on my desk. Murder on the Rocks - all formats, all territories - 26 May 2026
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/01/2026
I’ve just noticed that we have a cover for Murder on the Rocks. All formats, all territories, 26 May 2026 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DZBMMHVZ www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZBMMHVZ etc
A book cover. The title is Murder on the Rocks, the author T E Kinsey. Within the usual ‘tree’ border Lady Hardcastle and Flo stand on an island with a Tudor fort atop a hill in the distance. The sky is menacing and the sea is beginning to get a little rough. The ‘corner objects’ are an Edwardian goblet and a violin.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 20/12/2025
I forgot to mention the Christmas book. You've see it before, but we have Christmas every year now, so... you know...
A Kindle showing the "Christmas at The Grange" cover. There's a pearl pendant on a gold chain draped over the kindle. There are three "Christmas at The Grange" baubles on the ground in front of it. Everything is standing in the snow. It's all CGI.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 15/12/2025
Getting in early because I'm already winding down for my Christmas break. Thanks for another great year.

No matter what you believe, have a fantastic time over the festive season. Merry Christmas.
The usual Blender 3D pic of a home library filled with T E Kinsey books. There’s a big blue armchair on one corner and a Christmas tree on the other. There are piles of books on the floor and ornaments on white, wooden blocks between the bookcases. The whole thing has been passed through a filter to make it look like a watercolour painting. White text at the bottom reads, “Wishing You a Hardcastle Christmas”.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 10/12/2025
behind the scenes...
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 10/12/2025
There's an anniversary today
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 07/12/2025
Lego Lando is thrilled to be World Champion #F1
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 03/12/2025
Met a nice fella not far from Hyde Park Corner
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/11/2025
I *know* it's a long way off, but I'll be at HNS 2026 in Maynooth, Ireland, next year with @pamlecky.bsky.social and Fiona Veitch Smith. The conference runs 21-23 Aug (our panel date TBA).
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/11/2025
Every once in a while I get an email telling me that there’s a UPS parcel on its way from Michigan. They’re usually translated editions of Hardcastles and they’re always a joy. Pretty sure I already have the French one somewhere, but the ‘mass market paperback’ of the German one is new to me.
A photograph of two paperback books on a white desk. The corner of a Mac keyboard is visible on the left and an iPad Mini at the top. The paperbacks are of different sizes. The larger is the French translation of Lady Hardcastle - Book 9 (An Act of Foul Play) and is entitled «Meurtre en trois actes». The smaller is the mass market paperback of the German translation of the first Hardcastle book (A Quiet Life in the Country) and is “Lady Hardcastle Und Der Tote Im Wald”.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 12/11/2025
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 10/11/2025
I hope @mwcraven.bsky.social and @vaseemkhanuk.bsky.social have been given these. (I had to buy mine, obviously.)
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 29/10/2025
If you dropped all the Lady Hardcastle books on a studio floor it wouldn’t look like this because there are only twelve of them and this image uses 2,000 virtual books. But they were ‘dropped’ in a fun physics simulation in Blender because I should be working.
A white floor covered with an untidy pile of paperback books - all Hardcastles by T E Kinsey. It’s CGI, created in Blender. It isn’t AI because that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun to do.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 28/10/2025
I might be a drummer, but I have a fondness for guitars and I’m working hard at learning some proper technique. I picked up the beautiful instrument at the front from Andertons yesterday.
In a cluttered corner of a room with IKEA shelves behind and a cymbal stand to one side, there are two electric guitars on stands. The rearmost is a PRS SE Silver Sky in Nylon Blue with a maple neck. In front stands a PRS SE McCarty 594 Single Cut in Vintage Sunburst.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/10/2025
It’s at about this time every year when I suddenly remember that, yes, actually, I do have a book with witches in it. In a sort of a way. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D4G28KY/
A 3D CGI image created in Blender, framed in the style of a Hardcastle cover. A mist shrouded forest with spooky light struggling to shine through the trees. In the foreground is a swing (it’s a long story) with a carved pumpkin lantern illuminating a paperback copy of A Picture of Murder.
The caption says, "Movies and murder. And possibly witches."
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 16/10/2025
I have a couple of quadcopters ("drones"). I like to keep the batteries in decent condition and when I charge them up I sometimes take them out for a quick test run to make sure everything is still working. Today I tried to sneak up on a couple of pigeons but they were too wily for me.
An overgrown corner of a garden. There’s a bird bath with moss on the base. A pole supporting two bird feeders. Two pigeons are caught mid-flight, their wings a blur, escaping the (unseen to us) unfamiliar flying object and its whiny rotors.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 07/10/2025
This was Eddie's shot at fame in 2016:
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 04/10/2025
Regular viewers might remember Eddie, my faithful Muppet Whatnot. His pleather jacket was falling to pieces, so while we were away, our daughter (who was housesitting) crocheted him a new cardigan.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 02/10/2025
I neglected to mention that we got from Banff to Vancouver on the Rocky Mountaineer…
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/10/2025
My wife says she doesn’t want to use the stairs - THEY’RE ON FIRE
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/10/2025
Finally, Vancouver... with added killer whales...
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 29/09/2025
Glacier & rainbow
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/09/2025
Banff, eh?
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 24/09/2025
Book 3 - Death Around the Bend currently available at the Calgary Central Library
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 24/09/2025
And now… Calgary
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 21/09/2025
It’s Montréal
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/09/2025
Et maintenant, Québec
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/09/2025
I’m not completely sure where we are
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 12/09/2025
Suddenly, Niagara
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 11/09/2025
We find ourselves at Toronto
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 22/08/2025
It's Friday afternoon on the last Bank Holiday weekend until Christmas. Time to #DownTools and indulge. Just give me a steel [strung] guitar and a glass of wine...
A photograph of a white desk with the usual office junk. In the foreground is the headstock and neck of a PRS Silversky SE guitar on a stand (the rest of the guitar is out of shot). On the desk is a large wine glass containing red wine.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/08/2025
It's a book nook. But it's made of Lego. And it's Sherlock Holmes. I couldn't ask for more.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/08/2025
We find ourselves once more at London
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 11/08/2025
I only ever write THE END so I can screenshot it - it never appears in the actual manuscript. Nevertheless, I have this day submitted the first draft of Lady Hardcastle - Book 13.
A screenshot of a Scrivener document entitled “LH13 v1”. The central pane simply has the words "THE END” typed near the top in white against a dark grey background.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 09/08/2025
It's always seemed a bit artificial to me when foley artists add a zing whenever someone draws a blade in a film. But then we got a new knife block...
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 06/08/2025
80 Years
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 02/08/2025
I was thinking back to my days in 4th Year Juniors at primary school when I played bass guitar in the school orchestra. I looked through old Argos catalogues and found this, which I believe is the instrument I played. It’s a 3/4 scale bass bought by the school from Argos in around 1973 or ’74.
Composite photo showing a product shot from the Argos catalogue 1973/4. Cropped to show an electric bass guitar leaning against an electronic organ. The bass is 3/4 scale and finished in tobacco burst with a white pick guard. 
Also in the composite is the listing for the item which reads: 18. DALLAS ARBITER Solid Electric Bass Guitar. 2 pick-ups. 4 strings. Amplifier lead included. (Japan). Catalogue Number 540/0045. Recommended Retail £25.37. Argos Price £19.95
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 29/07/2025
Meanwhile in 2008 at the Upton Snodsbury Music Festival...
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 22/07/2025
For anyone who wondered about my badger pin this weekend, these are three of the visiting badgers. "You want to try mowing the f$%&ing orchard."
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 21/07/2025
What with writing LH13 and all the prep for Harrogate, I completely missed the anniversary of Macaroni Penguins' last (hopefully not final) gig at the Nibley Festival on 6 July last year. Eee, but we ’ad a laff.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 21/07/2025
I went to #TheakstonsCrime intending to post updates... and forgot. Instead, I just had the best time ever. I hugged old friends, met wonderful new people, and had a great time hosting the How We Lived Then panel. The only useable pic on my phone is this screenshot from the official HIF IG account.
Screenshot of an Instagram story on a phone screen. The main image shows the stage at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival with me (Tim Kinsey) on the left, S J Parris, Andrew Taylor, Beth Lewis and Shylashri Shankar.
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/07/2025
There are some fantastic books in the book room at Harrogate. #TheakstonsCrime
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 16/07/2025
We find ourselves once more at Harrogate. This is the view from our room. #theakstonscrime
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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 08/07/2025
The yellow ingot arrived today, enabling me to turn my Lego McLaren into Lando's Lego McLaren.
A lego F1 car in McLaren livery with a yellow T-bar instead of the stock black.
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