The Vanishing Man by Charles Finch

The Vanishing Man: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch --- 288 pages including Acknowledgements.

The Vanishing Man is the twelfth book in the Charles Lenox mystery series by Charles Finch; by chronology it is the second book in the trilogy of prequels that Finch is now writing about the early career of his Victorian era sleuth, following after The Woman in the Water, and predating the first book in the original series, A Beautiful Blue Death.

The Vanishing Man finds our hero determined to follow his instinct for detection and continuing his investigative education despite the antagonism of Scotland Yard and the social disapproval of his peers. Lenox would forfeit his status as a gentleman if he "went into trade" (in other words, was paid for his work) so he makes a point of offering his services gratis.

The Duke of Dorset, the third most powerful nobleman in England, reluctantly turns to Lenox for assistance when a painting of his great-grandfather, the 13th Duke, is taken from his private study. The matter is too delicate to confide to the police. The Duke insists on absolute discretion; he's not interested in recovering the picture, he just wants to know who took it. Unfortunately, another theft results in the death of the Duke's valet; and when the Duke is arrested on suspicion of murder, resulting in the very scandal he was trying to avoid.

After much ado, Finch finally gets the truth out of him: Dorset is convinced that the thief is after a much bigger prize: the hidden clue to the whereabouts of a hitherto "lost" play by William Shakespeare. The Dorset family has kept knowledge of this play secret for generations as they tried to unravel the mystery.

Unfortunately, the Dorsets have never been able to solve the riddle. Can Lenox recover the lost painting, find the elusive hidden clue, and solve the riddle?

Among other things, Finch presents a scathing look at how rigid Victorian class and gender structures perverted justice and warped lives.

Click HERE for a Q&A with the author from Criminal Element.com.

Click HERE for the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the Washington Post.

Click HERE for a review from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Woman in the Water: by Charles Finch

The Woman in the Water: A Prequel to the Charles Lenox Series by Charles Finch --- 292 pages

American author Charles Finch has taken a fresh approach to his long-running Victorian mystery series featuring an aristocratic ex-member of Parliament who finally takes up his long held ambition to become a private detective.

This prequel, set some twenty years prior to the original series, gives us a look at the young Charles Lenox, just come down from Oxford and taking up residence in London.  As the younger son of a baronet, Charles has no preordained occupation --- his brother Edmund is the heir to their father's title and estate. As a gentleman with a private income and a university degree, however, the range of socially acceptable occupations for Charles is actually quite limited: the Army, the Church, government service such as the diplomatic corps or a seat in Parliament, or (just barely beginning to be tolerated) some very discreet connection with investments in the City. 

But Charles, to the dismay of his family and friends, is fascinated by crime. So when he finds a letter published in one of the London tabloids, in which the writer boasts he has committed the "perfect"murder, and intends to murder again in one month, so that people are forced to pay attention, Charles takes it as a personal challenge. He and his valet, Graham, connect the boastful letter to the body of a young woman found strangled inside an old trunk washed up on an island in the Thames. So far the police have failed to identify the victim, much less her killer. Lenox pulls strings to see Sir Richard Mayne, the Commissioner of London's fledging police force at Scotland Yard. His offer of assistance is  initially declined, but when a second murder does occur, and Lenox is able to prove that it is linked to the first, Mayne offers him a role in the investigation. 

Click HERE to read an interview with the author talking about The Woman in the Water.

Click HERE to read the review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review in the Washington Post.

The Inheritance by Charles Finch

The Inheritance: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch --- 294 pages

Tenth volume in the mystery series set in Victorian London, with a former member of Parliament who has thrown over politics in favor of a career as a private detective.

Charles Finch is contacted by an old school friend who is visitng London because of an unexpected and mysterious legacy. To his surprise, Finch learns that Gerald Leigh has become a celebrated scientist, invited to speak to the Royal Society about his work with microbes. But for some reason Leigh is being pursued by two thugs from one of London's most notorious street gangs; he's been attacked and narrowly escaped twice already. Not surprisingly, Leigh is ready to chuck London, the legacy, and the Royal Society, and return to his travels. But when the highly respectable solicitor who was handling the details of the legacy is found murdered in his chambers, Leigh relectantly agrees that the situation merits further investigation.

The Lenox series is notable for its attention to the details of life in Victorian London, from the privileged life of the upper classes to the desperate poverty of the slums.  An enjoyable read for fans of the classic British mystery.

Click HERE for the review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the Denver Post.

Click HERE for the review from the Historical Novel Society web site.

Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch

Home by Nightfall: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch --- 294 pages

It's 1876 and Charles Lenox has abandoned his promising career in Parliament in favor of his fascination with detection. Drawing on his reputation and contacts as an amateur sleuth, he is now a partner in a detective agency, along with his former protegee Lord John Dallington, and the intrepid Miss Polly Strickland.

Just now London is agog with the mysterious disappearance of a celebrated German pianist and favorite of the Royal family. Charles and his partners desperately want to be called in by Scotland Yard to consult on the case, but their overtures have been rebuffed, and a rival agency has been hired instead.

Charles is also concerned about the desolate state of his elder brother Sir Edmund, who is mourning the sudden death of his wife Molly. When business requires Edmund to return to the family estate in Sussex where Molly died, Charles decides to go with him. No sooner have they arrived then they learn that the peace of Lenox House and the nearby village of Markethouse has been disturbed by a series of small but strange incidents targeting a respectable resident of the village. Lenox investigates, coaxing his brother to participate (in the hopes of distracting Edmund from his grief). But as the odd happenings continue, Charles begins to suspect there is something seriously amiss in Markethouse.

Juggling two myserious cases, one on London and one in Sussex, Charles finds his powers of detection challenged at every turn. Neither case is as simple as it seemed at first. Reputations and lives are hanging precariously in the balance. Worst of all, Charles finds no matter what he does, any sense of justice achieved is ambivalent at best.

Finch writes well: his characters come alive on the page, his plots are fiendishly clever, and his research incorporates fascinating details of everyday life in Victorian England.  This is the ninth book in the Charles Lenox Mysteries Series. It can be read as a stand alone, but I recommend reading the series in order, starting with A Beautiful Blue Death.

Click HERE for a review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE for a review from the Reading the Past Blog.

Click HERE for a review from The Bookwyrm's Hoard web site.

A Death in the Smal Hours by Charles Finch

A Death in the Small Hours by Charles Finch --- 310 pages

Charles Lenox, member of Parliament and happily married father of a newborn daughter, still finds himself occasionally hankering in his soul for his former avocation as a notable amateur of criminal detection.

But when Lenox is awarded the signal honor of making the opening speech on behalf of the government at the new session of Parliament --- a sure sign that he is an up-and-coming man in the ruling Liberal Party --- he resolves to use this opportunity to advance the cause of relief for England's poor.

He soon realizes that he will need a few weeks away from the pressures of London in order to prepare this important speech. Lenox seizes on the happy chance of an invitation from his favorite uncle Freddie Ponsonby to bring his family to visit Uncle Freddie's beautiful, secluded rural estate in Somerset.  That Uncle Freddie has appealed to Charles for assistance in solving the vexing case of vandalisms in the nearly village of Plumbley, will provide Lenox with a welcome diversion.

It seems but a minor distraction until a local constable is brutally set upon and murdered in the middle of the village in the small hours of the night. Lenox steps up his investigation, with the assistance of his rakish but gifted protege Lord John Dallington, and they identify the man responsible. Everything seems to be neatly sorted out until Uncle Freddie is kidnapped.  Then Lenox discovers that his simple case is far more complex and dangerous than he at first imagined.

Cleverly plotted and well written, Finch is developing an interesting cast of recurring characters in this series of Victorian mysteries.

Click HERE for a review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE for a review from Kirkus.

The Laws of Murder by Charles Finch

The Laws of Murder: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch --- 290 pages

This is the eighth book in Finch's Victorian mystery series featuring private investigator Charles Lenox.

It’s 1876, and Charles Lenox, has just given up his seat in Parliament after six years, primed to return to his first profession, detection. With high hopes he and his friend Lord John Dallington have decided to create a consulting detective agency, the first of its kind. The partnership also includes two other private inquiry agents that have been friendly rivals of Lenox and Dallington in the past: Mrs. Polly Buchanan, a well born but penniless widow, and the Frenchman, LeMaire. But much to Lenox's surprise and chagrin, his new venture is ridiculed and belittled in the press, with slighting comments from Scotland Yard inspectors whom he considered friends and colleagues. Months pass, and while the other partners are attracting business to the firm, Lenox has not a single client to show for himself.

Then late one night Scotland Yard shows up on Lenox's doorstep. Inspector Thomas Jenkins, foremost of Lenox's detractors, is found murdered near Regent’s Park. In fact, his body lies almost at the doorstep of the Marquess of Wakefield, a peer of unsavory reputation whom both the police and Lenox have pursued in the past without success. Jenkins, inexplicably, has left precise instructions that in the event of his own death, Charles Lenox must be called in to consult on the case.  As Lenox and Dallington begin their investigation the mystery thickens as they discover Lord Wakefield disappeared shortly before Jenkins' murder. Lenox perseveres on the trail in spite of threats against himself and his family, uncovering a scandal that reaches into the highest echelons of society.

Click HERE to read reviews of the book on GoodReads.

An Old Betrayal by Charles Finch

An Old Betrayl: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch --- 294 pages

The seventh volume in Finch's series of Victorian mysteries featuring Charles Lenox.

It is early spring 1875 and Charles Lenox gladly plays hookey from his hectic schedule as a member of Parliament and Junior Lord of the Treasury to oblige an old friend. Lord John Dallington is following in Charles' unconventional footsteps as a private inquiry agent; Lord John is unwell and Charles agrees to meet with a new client on his behalf in the restaurant at Charing Cross Station.

Because of a a series of assumptions that prove to be incorrent, Lenox does not recognize the client until too late, but has an abrupt encounter with a man calling himself Archibald Godwin, whose arrival caused Dallington's mysterious client to flee. A few days later, Lenox and Dallington are summoned by the police when Archibald Godwin is found murdered in a respectable London hotel. But the murdered man in the hotel is not the man Lenox met in the restaurant.

Then the victim's sister arrives and reveals that her brother came to town in pursuit of an imposter who was using his name and credit to commit fraud. It seems that the man Lenox encountered at Charing Cross was actually the imposter, and the police find evidence that seems to suggest this imposter murdered the real Archibald Godwin.

But what is the connection between Archibald Godwin, a quiet country squire, the imposter, and Dallington's erstwhile client, who, Lenox discovers, is one of Queen Victoria's social secretaries at Buckingham Palace. Soon Lenox begins to suspect that this murder is just one part of a much larger and very dangerous conspiracy. Somone has been nursing a grudge for a very long time and is about to take his revenge.