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Author: Visit Amazon's Charles Finch Page
ISBN : 1250011612
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From Publishers Weekly
A simple favor for a friend turns into much more for Charles Lenox in Finch's engaging seventh Victorian mystery featuring the former private investigator turned MP (after 2012's A Death in the Small Hours). While Lenox's political star is on the rise and he's happily married, he welcomes the chance to resume sleuthing when his protégé, Lord John Dallington, is unable, due to a cold, to attend a rendezvous with a prospective client who has sent a cryptic note inviting Dallington to meet at a London restaurant. Lenox fills in, but, uncharacteristically, botches the job, failing to recognize in time the client-to-be, a woman later identified as being connected with Buckingham Palace, who flees the restaurant. The mystery gets progressively more complex, with an impersonation and murder, though it's less clever than Finch's best. Still, the combination of a simpatico lead and old-fashioned detection will appeal to golden age fans. Agents: Kari Stuart and Jennifer Joel, ICM. (Nov.)
From Booklist
While Charles Lenox is making a name for himself as a member of Parliament, thanks in part to his secretary and former butler, Graham, he misses his old life as a detective. So when his former colleague and protégé, John Dallington, is ill and asks his help in meeting a prospective client in distress, Lenox is happy to oblige. The client is a secretary to Queen Victoria, who’s being blackmailed for her less-than-reputable past, and the case turns into one based on long-festering revenge, leading to murder and touching the monarchy itself. Lenox also must look into his wife’s concern that her dear cousin’s husband is straying with a flirtatious young widow, meanwhile considering what to do about malicious rumors besmirching Graham. The seventh in this series proceeds at a leisurely pace suitable to 1875 London, dealing with betrayal in both the case at hand and in parliamentary politics. But Lenox’s instincts as a sleuth are keen and his wit is sharp as he handles adversity in an eminently satisfactory fashion. A fine addition to this impressive series. --Michele Leber
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Books with free ebook downloads available Epub An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery (Charles Lenox Mysteries) Hardcover
- Series: Charles Lenox Mysteries (Book 7)
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Minotaur Books (November 12, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1250011612
- ISBN-13: 978-1250011619
- Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Epub An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery
Charles Finch's "An Old Betrayal" is the seventh in his "Charles Lenox" series of mysteries set in London in the 1870's. I think many of us read series books because we want to see "old friends", whose lives and adventures we've followed for years. I've read most of the Lenox series and I'm basing my review on comparing this latest book to the previous ones and also to other historical mysteries.
Charles Lenox is a Harrow and Oxford graduate who has lately retired from his amateur sleuthing business to take up "real life" as an MP from the northern English area of "Stirrington". He has a wife and toddler daughter and a fair amount of time on his hands as Parliament meets in night sessions. What to do during the day? In "Betrayal", Charles Lexox helps out an old friend who has taken over his business and the two - joined eventually by another sleuth - find themselves involved in a murder case, a case of future thievery, and a missing person/attempted identity theft. Of course, this being a novel, all these cases lead back to the same source. It's up to Lenox and his friends, along with an assist from Scotland Yard, to bring this somewhat complicated case to a final ending. Which they do in grand style.
Writing an historical novel is not an easy task. The author has to immerse himself in the times, learn to think like a contemporaneous person, and be able to pass his knowledge in smooth writing to the reader. Some eras are easier than others to use. I think 1875 is a bit on the difficult side. After all, train travel and the telegraph were in use at this time, but motor cars and telephones were to come later. Electricity in private homes was gaining acceptance but was still not widely available.
Here they are, old friends again -amateur detective Charles Lenox, now member of Parliament, and his lovely wife Lady Jane; their good friends Toto and Thomas; Charles's former servant and now his political secretary, the hard working, perspicacious Graham; the former roué, now detective Lord Dallington; even Inspector Jenkins of Scotland Yard. They're all here, settled in a few more years but appealing as ever. Charles and Jane have a baby now, two-year-old Sophia. Charles is a bit embarrassed how much of his time he wants to spend with her. ("After a lifetime of polite boredom when confronted with children, he had finally found one whose companionship seemed a delight.") Charles is rising in statute in Parliament. He's a junior Lord of the Treasury, but not always sure it's worth it. It's important work but he misses detecting.
His blood rises when his former protégé Dallington asks Charles to take his place at a meeting with a mysterious client. He needs to be in a certain place at a certain time; there's a forty-five minute window of time to meet. The client hasn't given Dallington his name, only how to recognize him -look for the person carrying a black and white striped umbrella. Charles goes to the rendezvous. Things turn belly up. From then on, it's catch-up, all carried out in the interstices of Charles's increasingly busy parliamentary schedule -a critically important Factory Act is on the floor, which , if passed, will protect children and women from abuse.
The main story line of this period thriller, set in London, 1875, is twisty -a little too twisty at points but that's common for Finch's enjoyable but not always plausible mystery stories.
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