Benjamin Thomas's Reviews > A Beautiful Blue Death

In Victorian London, Charles Lenox is a gentleman of the leisurely class, a man with no worries about income or career. His daily activities lean toward scholarly pursuits of exotic locales and spending time in the various social clubs of upper-class English society. But when his lifelong friend and neighbor, Lady Jane comes to him with news of a former maid apparently having committed suicide, Lenox is compelled to investigate. Shortly, he discovers the suicide note could not have been written by the maid and thus, it’s murder.

This is the first of the Charles Lenox mysteries by Charles Finch and serves as a fairly good introduction to the series. It is, however, the author’s first novel and even he confesses to some areas he would write differently if he were to write it today. For me, while I enjoyed the character of Lenox himself, we spend a bit too much time with his day-to-day life, his taking tea with Lady Jane, his discussions with various friends and acquaintances, and so forth. It provides nice color and broadens the character but at times, it seems padded. The ending especially suffers from this, with a lengthy denouement that is drawn out far too long. The case is solved with more than fifty pages to go so we wallow in discussion of motives, and excessively detailed explanations of how it was done. A final chapter is tacked on that has nothing at all to do with the case.

But still, despite these shortcomings, I thought the case itself was well thought out. The author’s influences of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers are clearly evident in the nature of the plot. The result is a golden-age style mystery complete with murder by poison, a single murder location, and a handful of suspects. The writing itself is charming and the settings are spot-on Victorian London. it’s hard to believe the author is American and not British.

Overall, this is probably a three-and-a-half star read for me but I am rounding up for the sheer charm of it all. It kept me turning the pages and I am interested to read more books in the series.