Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox, #1)

A young servant is poisoned with a terribly expensive and unusual poison: bella indigo, the beautiful blue. Charles Lenox, a minor gentleman and amateur sleuth is on the case- a case that will bring him to some of the worst neighborhoods and the most opulent social events in London. Lenox's relationship with the police is not always the best, but with a brother in Parliament, Lenox has good connections.

I really enjoyed this book. The mystery is more complicated than many I have read in this genre. Finch's writing is quite good. There are a number of English gentleman detectives. Charles Lenox is a worthy inheritor of the traditions of Albert Campion and Lord Peter Wimsey.

Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2008).

Review: Speaking from among the Bones

The Flavia de Luce series keeps getting better and better. This book was the best yet in the series, and it finds Flavia investigating the death of the parish organist. St. Tancred's parish is digging up the remains of their patron saint, and an old corpse is right up Flavia's street (literally and figuratively). When a much newer dead body turns up in the old tomb Flavia is on the case, with her chemistry lab at her service. Flavia spends plenty of time mucking around in the grave dirt to find the killer.

Like other books in the series this one is fast-moving with quirky characters. Bradley continues to develop the de Luce family, and Flavia continues to try and be accepted as a mature colleague by the vicar and the police. Bradley drops a huge bomb at the end of the book. The cliffhanger ending is tremendous. With one final line Bradley has basically ensured that I will go out and buy the next book immediately upon its publication. Well played, Mr. Bradley. I can't wait to see where this is going.

Alan Bradley, Speaking from among the Bones (Delacorte, 2013) ISBN: 0385344031 

Review: Cocaine Blues

In 1920s Melbourne pilot and daredevil Phryne Fisher is employed ot investigate a young woman's mysterious illness. It seems that her husband might be slowly poisoning her. Fisher camps out in a luxury hotel and befriends a couple of precocious cabbies, who help her solve the mystery. Quickly Phryne is drawn into the Melbourne underworld, looking to uncover the source of the cocaine trade, as well as an illegal abortionist who is butchering young women.

I had no idea what to expect from this book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The characters are delightfully eccentric. Phryne gets up to all sorts of antics, and there are plenty of descriptions of 1920s high society. The mystery was also intriguing, as there was no one obvious suspect. Overall, I found this book to be quite satisfactory, and I will read more of the series.

Kerry Greenwood, Cocaine Blues (Poisoned Pen Press, 2007) ISBN: 159058385X 

Review: Paragon Walk

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt are back investigating murder. This time a young woman has been raped and murdered in Paragon Walk, a fashionable London street that happens to be home to Charlotte's sister Emily. Charlotte and Emily decide to investigate. As Charlotte has married down and become a policeman's wife, Emily will have to dress Charlotte back up as the fashionable lady she once was.

This book seemed to be more social interaction and less crime-solving. Charlotte and Emily spend most of their time attending social functions and gossiping. It seems that Perry really wanted to spend more time commenting on social life and customs than to write a mystery. Undoubtedly the bitchy social interaction is amusing. It's a backstabbing, every woman for herself arena, where Victorian manners and their transgressions are on full display. Still, I really wanted more mystery. I hope Perry returns to more mystery in the next volume of the series.

Anne Perry, Paragon Walk (Ballantine, 2009) ISBN: 0345513975 

Review: Brigade

Trow has a fabulous sense of humor, and it is on full display in this book. In this book Lestrade goes undercover to investigate the deaths of elderly veterans who belonged to the same army regiment. His disguises include other investigators at Scotland Yard, as well as an orthodox rabbi, and his case has him traversing the country into every corner of the countryside.

There's plenty to like about these mysteries, and I enjoyed this one. Though they are based on the Inspector Lestrade character in the Sherlock Holmes books, Holmes and Watson are very marginal to this book, even more so than they were in the first in the series. It is Lestrade who is the center of London investigations. This is not a series for those who take their Holmes seriously. Trow takes plenty of liberties, and the main attraction for me is their humorous writing, not their adherence to Conan Doyle's canon.

M.J. Trow, Brigade: The Further Adventures of Lestrade (Regenery, 2000) ISBN: 0895263424 

Review: The September Society

Charles Lenox faces two challenges in this book. The first is to solve the mystery of an Oxford student's association with a secret society and subsequent disappearance. The second is to ask his friend and neighbor Lady Jane to be his wife. George Payson has disappeared left a variety of odd objects in his room- muddy boots, a tomato, and little scraps of paper with the mark of the September Society. A bit of investigation determines that the September Society is an exclusive club for officers stationed together in the east. Determining what this has to do with the missing Payson becomes Lenox's task.

These Charles Lenox mysteries are always satisfactory. They're complicated and well-written. The books have more depth than a cozy mystery, but give plenty of attention to Lenox and his personal relationships. It's rather charming to see Lenox worrying like a love-struck teenager about his impending proposal. Finch's writing is good and he offers solid historical mysteries. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Charles Finch, The September Society (Minotaur, 2008) ISBN: 0312359780 

Review: Flying Too High

In the previous Phryne Fisher book there were several references to Phryne being a pilot, but aviation played no role. The pilot references seemed like an add-on, so I'm pleased that in this volume we get to see Phryne in action: flying and wing-walking. Phryne is commissioned to find the murderer of a Melbourne tycoon. At the same time, she is also called to investigate a kidnapping.

As background to these two mysteries we get to see Phryne furnish her house and attend society functions, as she lives the glamorous life in 1920s Melbourne. Phryne is very much the "New Woman" of the 1920s- short hair, fashionable clothes, sexually liberated.

I like the approach of having two mysteries in the book, and as in the previous volume, 1920s Australia provides a fascinating setting. This was a quick and entertaining read, and I'll be reading more in the series.

Kerry Greenwood, Flying Too High (Poisoned Pen Press, 2007) ISBN: 1590583957 

Review: The Cater Street Hangman

Cater Street is an upscale residential neighborhood in Victorian London. It is the residence of the Ellison family, and it also becomes the scene of terror and mystery as several young women in the neighborhood are found garroted. The eminently respectable neighborhood appears to have a serial killer on its hands. What is nearly as bad as the murders is that they have been inundated by the police who are seeking the killer. Police are still rather suspicious in late-nineteenth century London, and they threaten the respectability of the neighborhood.

One of the Ellisons disagrees with these ideas. Charlotte, Ellison daughter of marriageable age, finds the case fascinating, and also starts to find the police inspector, Thomas Pitt, rather interesting too.

Aside from being a good mystery, which this is, this book offers a wealth of information about Victorian family and gender norms. The reader gets an acute sense of the structures binding a free spirit like Charlotte Ellison. Readers who are not especially familiar with the Victorian period will likely find the ideas about the police interesting too-- they are hardly complimentary and quite different from the twenty-first century.

I did figure out the responsible party in this mystery rather earlier than I would have preferred, but this book certainly pulled me into the series and made me want to read more. I'm expecting subsequent books in this series to be better; this book had to lay significant groundwork introducing the family and the Ellison sisters.

Anne Perry, The Cater Street Hangman (orig. 1979, Ballantine, 2008) ISBN: 0345513568 

Review: Her Royal Spyness

A down-at-the-heels minor royal, Lady Georgina refuses to be married off to a boring European prince. She desperately wants to escape the confines of her deadly dull sister-in-law's house. To try and gain a modicum of freedom Georgie runs off to the family's London home, finds a body in the bathtub, and sees her brother accused of the crime. To earn money and clear her brother's name Georgie engages in all sorts of schemes and adopts numerous disguises, including operating her own maid service.

This book offers a humorous look at the 'plight' of the minor royal. All of them are absolutely incompetent without servants. Georgie and her brother Binky can't run a bath, make a cup of tea, start a fire, or get coal out of the cellar. Royal protocol requires Lady Georgina to refuse private employment, but her family can't keep up their houses and servants on their too-small resources.

As this is the first in the series quite a bit of time is spent establishing the characters. This seems to frequently be the case with mystery series, and I often prefer subsequent volumes. I suspect that might be true with this series too.

Rhys Bowen, Her Royal Spyness (Berkley, 2007) ISBN: 0425215679