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Author: Charles Finch
ISBN : B00DA79WK4
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Format: PDF
Download electronic versions of selected books Epub An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
In An Old Betrayal, the seventh book of Charles Finch’s bestselling series of Victorian mysteries, a case of mistaken identity has Charles Lenox playing for his highest stakes yet: the safety of Queen Victoria herself.
On a spring morning in London, 1875, Charles Lenox agrees to take time away from his busy schedule as a Member of Parliament to meet an old protégé’s client at Charing Cross. But when their cryptic encounter seems to lead, days later, to the murder of an innocuous country squire, this fast favor draws Lenox inexorably back into his old profession.
Soon he realizes that, far from concluding the murderer’s business, this body is only the first step in a cruel plan, many years in the plotting. Where will he strike next? The answer, Lenox learns with slowly dawning horror, may be at the very heart of England’s monarchy.
Ranging from the slums of London to the city’s corridors of power, the newest Charles Lenox novel bears all of this series’ customary wit, charm, and trickery—a compulsive escape to a different time.
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Epub An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery (Charles Lenox Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 735 KB
- Print Length: 305 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250011612
- Publisher: Minotaur Books (November 12, 2013)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DA79WK4
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,298 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #34
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical - #48
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #53
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical
- #34
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical - #48
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives - #53
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical
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.