Lesa's Book Critiques: A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
Showing posts with label Charles Finch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Finch. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 09, 2025
Monday, November 03, 2025
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Hidden City: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch
I was delighted to receive an
advance review copy of the fifteenth historical mystery about Charles Lenox. To
be published by Minotaur in early November, The Hidden City by Charles
Finch is as complex as its predecessors, combining changes in the Lenox family
circle with a perplexing problem.
Lenox is still recovering from
serious injuries incurred during his last investigation and has yet to feel
completely up to par. On the orders of his new doctor, he is visiting a gym
twice a week where he undergoes a lengthy regimen of stretching and strengthening
exercises in what is a forerunner of what we know today as physical therapy.
Despite not feeling his best,
two letters demand his immediate attention. One is about the will of Lenox’s favorite
cousin Jasper. He died in India, where he lived for years, leaving a daughter
of about 20 years. Angela’s only remaining family is in England, and Charles
Lenox and Lady Jane arrange for her to live with them. He and Jane know nothing
about their new cousin, Jasper had become a recluse and poor correspondent, but
they are eager to do what they can to smooth her way. Jane in particular is
looking forward to introducing her to society. Her own daughters are many years
away from making their debut and she is excited about having someone now to
accompany through the social whirl of London’s upper classes.
The other letter is from his
former housekeeper. When he first moved into rooms in London, Lenox’s mother
hired Mrs. Elizabeth Huggins to keep his house and him in order. Mrs. Huggins
has returned from the country to London and is living alone in an old house where
a murder took place some years previously. Someone has begun sleeping on her
front porch and Mrs. Huggins is afraid that whoever it is will try to break in.
Lenox can’t have the old lady who has been so good to him worried or
threatened, so he sets staff from his detective agency to watch the building. The
neighbors are convinced that the intruder is the man suspected of the unsolved
killing, returned from years abroad.
In a particularly fascinating
thread, Lenox notices some sort of mark carved into the foundation of the
house. He finds the same symbol on another long-standing building and launches
into a tour of one of the oldest sections in London, looking for more
structures with the emblem and allowing Finch to describe the glorious
architecture of many old buildings.
Surprises at home and on the
job keep Lenox fully occupied in another very good entry in a fine historical
mystery series. Finch faithfully adheres to the social conventions and
scientific knowledge of the time and creates a compelling world of credible,
likeable characters. I can count on this series for an engaging read, no matter
which Lenox book I open.
Readers familiar with Lenox,
Lady Jane, and their circle will be delighted with this new adventure. New
readers should begin with one of the earlier titles. Recommended.
Booklist starred review.
·
Publisher:
Minotaur Books
·
Publication
date: November 4, 2025
·
Language:
English
·
Print
length: 288 pages
·
ISBN-10:
1250767164
·
ISBN-13:
978-1250767165
Amazon Associate Purchase
Link: https://amzn.to/49fodNh
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Friday, May 14, 2021
Friday, March 19, 2021
Friday, March 08, 2019
Friday, November 03, 2017
Lesa's Latest Contest-- Mysteries set in the 1800s
This week, I'm giving away 2 mysteries set in the 1800s, Charles Finch's
The Inheritance & Alyssa Maxwell's Murder at Chateau sur Mer. Details on my
blog at http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com. Entries from the U.S.
only, please.
Lesa Holstine
Monday, September 04, 2017
Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Inheritance by Charles Finch
The Inheritance by Charles Finch is
#10 in his 1870s Victorian historical mystery series featuring Charles Lenox,
the younger son of a landed baronet. Lenox launched into the unfashionable
career of a detective in his youth and by this point is one of three owners of
a thriving investigative agency.
Lenox receives a letter from a
long-ago Harrow classmate, Gerald Leigh, asking for his help. Leigh’s father died while he was young and
left his family in penury. Normally that would have precluded Leigh from
attending the exclusive and expensive Harrow but someone Leigh referred to as
the Mysterious Benefactor paid his tuition and fees. Lenox and Leigh tried to
learn who this person was without success. Lenox refers to it as his first
case. Leigh did not fit in at Harrow and in his second year was expelled. He
immediately joined a ship’s crew and vanished from Lenox’s life.
When they meet Leigh advises Lenox
that he has received another inheritance and wants his help in finding out the
source of this money, as he has no one he can reasonably expect to inherit from.
He wonders if it is from the same person who paid his Harrow tuition and if it
is tainted in some way. Since his arrival in London, Leigh has been followed
and has been attacked twice.
In addition Leigh is besieged by
members of The Royal Society, as he has become a well-known self-taught
scientist and has published a great deal based on his work from his lab in
Paris. Lenox sets out on the complicated task of protecting Leigh while
allowing him to meet with the English scientific community and identifying his
attackers as well as determining the source of both old and new monies. In the
meantime his partners in the agency investigate a break-in in Parliament, their
biggest customer, incurring the jealousy of Scotland Yard.
As always with this series, this book
is an absorbing well-written read about largely pleasant but believable people.
The plot is intricately structured with unexpected twists and judiciously
sprinkled with clues that are sufficiently disguised so as not be recognized for
what they are. I absolutely loved who
the Mysterious Benefactor turned out to be. Another story point of particular
interest is the description of scientific details as they were known at the
time, which are presented effortlessly but no doubt required a great deal of
research from the vantage point of nearly 150 years later. This series falls
about midway on the idealized cozy-relentlessly gritty spectrum of historical
mysteries and I recommend it.
·
Hardcover: 304 pages
·
Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st Edition edition (November 1, 2016)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1250070422
·
ISBN-13: 978-1250070425
Aubrey Hamilton © 2017
Aubrey Hamilton is a former
librarian who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Lesa's Latest Contest-- English Mystery Giveaway
This week, I'm giving away copies of Charles Finch's The Laws of Murder &
Edgar nominee for Best First Novel Murder at Brightwell by Ashley Weaver.
Details on my blog at http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com. Entries
from the U.S. only, please.
Lesa Holstine
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