A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

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 I have just read A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch, the 1st Charles Lenox Mystery. And what a pleasure it is!

First published in 2008, the edition I read was printed in 2017 with a new introduction by the author, writing about how the gift of the collected Sherlock Holmes stories, for his 12th birthday, so influenced him. And how one day, as an adult, struggling to write a literary novel, he “started to write about a cold London day in 1865” and Charles Lenox was born. And, lucky us, there are now 14 books in this series.

Charles Lenox lives well, in a nice house in London. When he comes home, wet and cold, his butler helps him with his coat, the maid prepares a meal, he is served a cup of tea in front of a warm fire. He has no need to work, except as a sort of unpaid private detective. Apart from the staff in the house, he lives alone. Next door though is his lady friend, Lady Jane Grey, a “childless widow of just past thirty”. Charles and Jane have known each other since childhood and are close friends now. Their friendship might seem odd to others, and perhaps not quite proper, but there it is.

It is Lady Jane who comes to Lenox with the request that he look into the death of a young maid. The girl once worked for Lady Jane but at the time of her death was employed in another establishment. Lenox does indeed think the death suspicious, and his friend Doctor Thomas McConnell agrees. A Scotland Yard detective is in charge of the case but, begrudgingly, allows Lenox to continue his own investigation.

We fall into a world of men’s clubs, hansom cabs, dark wet London nights, political and financial secrets and rivalries, life in the houses of the wealthy, old money and new. A second murder follows, and Lenox knows it must be one of only a few suspects, but which one?

By the end of A Beautiful Blue Death we know quite a lot about Lenox, and his older brother who has inherited the family home and the seat in Parliament. We know about Charles’ feelings for the Lady Jane, and his friendship with his troubled Doctor friend. We are well set up to move on to the next in this intelligent and satisfying mystery series.