A Death in the Small Hours

What I try to do with reviews at this Bookshelf blog is keep it simple and spoiler-free, and let you know whether I'd recommend you pick up a copy of what I just read. Seems to work okay. This time, a brief review of A Death in the Small Hours (Minotaur, 2012).


I'm honestly not sure how in the world I missed this one. I finished the fifth book (and, then, the most recent) in Charles Finch's series of Victorian-era mysteries back last summer when I was taking a solo road trip through northeast Georgia, to Clemson and back, and I'm sure that I knew then that Finch had another book due for release soon. I just plum forgot about it. I saw this out of the corner of my eye more than a year later and remembered "Hey! One of those books about Detective Lenox, MP!" There's even a seventh book that just came out! I wouldn't have known that had I not popped over to Amazon to get a link for you good readers to follow. Minotaur Books, your PR company needs a kick in the pants.

Charles Finch has settled into a comfortable groove with this series. Lenox pretends like he doesn't miss his days as an amateur sleuth, but he really does. His wife, and longtime best friend, politely smiles from the sidelines, his protégé Lord John Darlington has the old business in good hands when he's not drinking to excess, and all of privileged, aristocracy-era England is just waiting for some television company to buy the adaptation rights to these books.

This time out, Lenox and his family have taken a few weeks' vacation in a village near Bath, staying at the estate of an old family friend who has asked his help in getting to the bottom of a rash of strange vandalism. Lenox thinks this will be a low-key distraction from his duties, which include writing a major, lengthy speech to open the next session of Parliament, but the incidents of vandalism have a curious theme that has everyone in the village on edge, a disagreeable new resident has made enemies of half his neighbors, and then things get really bad when the junior constable is found stabbed to death.

This isn't anything especially challenging, but a satisfying little pleasure, good, comfortable curl-up-on-the-couch on a warm day fiction. I've scoffed a little at "cozy" mysteries from time to time in this blog, but Finch really does do his work better than most of his peers, creating a fun and evolving world with a diverse cast of great characters. Happily recommended, and now I need to order the next novel.

A Burial at Sea

What I try to do with reviews at this Bookshelf blog is keep it simple and spoiler-free, and let you know whether I'd recommend you pick up a copy of what I just read. Seems to work okay. This time, a brief review of A Burial at Sea (Minotaur, 2011).

How frustrating! I've finished the fifth of Charles Finch's very fun 1870s-set novels about Mr. Charles Lenox, MP and detective, and that's the last of them so far. I got to the end of this book while having supper in Clemson a few weeks ago and wanted to just growl aloud because I've caught up with the author, and now have to join his many fans in drumming my fingers impatiently waiting for more.

That's not to say that I couldn't quibble a little about this one if I wanted to. While on the one hand, I really have to applaud Finch on the amount of research that he did, I fear that he didn't spend nearly as much time establishing his killer's character. My understanding of sea life in the 1800s is limited to touring the Constitution and reading Chris Schweizer's first Crogan book, but Finch really made this location come to life, and brought home just how bad things could get for somebody who gets on the wrong side of a ship's captain at sea. By sending Lenox overseas on a top secret mission to Egypt for Her Majesty's Government, it looks at first like the amateur detective is going to start a new career as a secret agent, but a gruesome murder sees his expertise needed.

Locked room killings always have the potential for fun in detective fiction, but I've never run across one where the locked room is at sea. (Yes, I'm aware Christie wrote one; I don't like Christie.) It really is unthinkable that a naval lieutenant should be murdered in this way, and the captain, charged with getting Lenox to Egypt, is torn between his duty, his demands, and his disbelief. When somebody in the crew sends a harsh message warning of mutiny and then there is a second killing, the impossibility of the situation is driven home. This would be a mess on dry land in London; at sea, the events couldn't be more grim.

And yet the revelation of the killer and the depiction of his madness completely failed to gel with me. The villain couldn't have been drawn with broader strokes had he been played by the late, great Frank Gorshin, which makes the control that he had exercised prior to his unmasking completely unbelievable. There's also a disappointing reality of just the way this fiction can be expected to behave; when the killer gets away with a solid chunk of pages left to go, then it's obvious from space that the character will reappear while the hero is dealing with his spy mission. Fortunately, I found enough to enjoy with the material in Egypt that it never felt like marking time until the murder mystery was finally resolved.

The only real complaint that I have about Finch's universe is that Lenox seemed much happier when he was not torn between his loyalties to Parliament and his family and his desire to investigate. I appreciate the honest depiction that this would be the reality for a man in Lenox's position, caught between duty and devotion, but it's left him, despite the assurances that his marriage is a happy and strong one, simply feeling adrift and torn. I hope that the author can give his character's conflict some closure in the sixth book, A Death in the Small Hours, which is due to be published this November. Otherwise, give the man's protege John Dallington the lead time; he threatened to be more interesting than Lenox in the second and fourth books anyway and could certainly carry a novel of his own. Recommended with minor reservations.

A Beautiful Blue Death

What I try to do with reviews at this Bookshelf blog is keep it simple and spoiler-free, and let you know whether I'd recommend you pick up a copy of what I just read. Seems to work okay. This time, a (very) brief review of A Beautiful Blue Death (St. Martin's, 2007).

Marie correctly figured that I would enjoy this mystery novel a good deal. Set in 1865, it features a gentleman sleuth named Charles Lenox. He has money and an equally rich brother who's an MP, he's close friends with an attractive, titled young widow who lives next door and with a devil-may-care young doctor He has a butler who is spectacularly capable and the soul of discretion, and a fractious relationship with the newly-formed Scotland Yard, whose barely-competent police detectives have not yet met any fictional supersleuths telling them what they're doing wrong.

Add this character the bonuses of period London, big posh homes, and the struggle between the upstairs and the downstairs as seen through modern eyes. Why this book hasn't shown up at WGBH's door with a note that reads "Please give the BBC money to make me and put me on PBS Masterpiece," I can't imagine.

In his first case, Lenox is asked by his neighbor, Lady Jane Grey, to investigate the suspicious death of a former maid, which is being called a suicide. But there are elements that the police have overlooked, and a possible political scandal regarding the homeowner, George Barnard, who has important connections to England's treasury, and a home full of curious house guests.

Briefly, this was indeed a very fun book. With the posh 'tec's casual and trusted relationship with Graham, Charles Finch has effortlessly evoked the wonderful relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey and Bunter. It's a good mystery, with an excellent cast of characters, and a real sense of research and hard work put into evoking the period. I almost wish that I had read it in 2007, so that I could hope for and wonder whether there would be additional novels featuring Lenox. As it is, there are five at this point, and I'm looking forward to catching up. I hope that a new one will be out later this year, because the more of these that I have to read, the better.