A Beautiful Blue Death is one of many books I picked up at a nice discount when Borders went into bankruptcy. I managed to pick up a number of books that I normally wouldn’t buy as they were so inexpensive. Anyway, this book was a nice surprise. It evoked a sense of Victorian England and the operations of a very early Scotland Yard. This is the first in a series by Charles Finch. This weekend I went out and bought the second one!
Charles Lenox is an armchair detective, and a very charming one. He is second in line to his brother who is a baron and a member of the House of Lords. He is intelligent, inquisitive and very well off. In the manner of Sherlock Holmes, he is often restless and bored and takes on all manner of cases to help out his associates and occasionally those less well off. This case starts with the death of a young house maid who used to work for his neighbor, his childhood friend Lady Jane. After a number of intriguing twists and turns, the mystery is solved. I have to admit it was a puzzle to me and didn’t turn out exactly as I thought. I was close, but not quite close enough. 🙂
The other fun part of this story is the description of medical science at this time, the food they ate and of course the tea time each day! It was a great book.
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