Book: Home by Nightfall

 

Author: Charles Finch

 

Genre: Fiction/Historical/Mystery

 

Summary: It's London, 1876, and the whole city is abuzz with the enigmatic disappearance of a famous foreign pianist. Lenox has an eye on the matter - as a partner in a now-thriving detective agency, he's a natural choice to investigate. Just when he's tempted to turn his focus to it entirely, however, his grieving brother asks him to come down to Sussex, and Lenox leaves the metropolis behind for the quieter country life of his boyhood. Or so he thinks. Something strange is afoot in Markethouse: small thefts - books, blankets, animals - and, more alarmingly, a break-in at the house of a local insurance agent. As he and his brother investigate this accumulation of mysteries, Lenox realizes that something very strange and serious indeed may be happening, more than just local mischief. Soon, he's racing to solve two cases at once, one in London and one in the country, before either turns deadly. Blending Charles Finch's trademark wit, elegance, and depth of research, this new mystery, equal parts Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, may be the finest in the series. Minotaur Books, 2015.

This is the third book from my Christmas haul and again, I enjoyed my read. 

The book and the author were recommended by one of my most favourite authors, Louise Penny, the author of the Gamache series.  I just spent 20 minutes trying to find the reference and failed miserably  *LOL*.   Anyway, that's the reason I picked it up.

So, Charles Lenox is a Victorian gentleman who likes to solve mysteries. He has an interesting group of family and friends and he's a smart fellow.  I liked him.  I can see why Louise likes him as well - there's a faint Gamachian feel to the book and the characters which is fine by me. 

I like Finch's writing style, it's easy to read and while there are instances of what could be termed as info-dumping, they're handled well and not annoying.  He also does some easy back and forth banter between Lenox and his old friends that I found quite fun. 

The mystery worked for me, as did the wrapping up of the various plot-lines.  There was a question or two that didn't get answered, or if it did, I missed it, but that didn't impede my enjoyment of the book.

If I had one real problem with the book, it was that there was an awful lot of snowing going on in London for late December/early January.  I don't think it snows that much over there at all. 

Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to add Book 2 to my wishlist.  :)

I read international suspense primarily, occasionally dipping my toe in historical fiction when I enjoy an author's work. I like Mr. Finch's Charles Lenox series—pre-order the books, in fact, and have rated some five stars—so was delighted to find The Last Enchantments.

WHAT I LIKED: Mr. Finch does a good job of describing the demographic my son experienced during his year at St. Andrews in Scotland. Finch's descriptions of Oxford catch the essence of the place. As expected from his work on the Lenox series, he can turn a phrase with the best of them.

WHAT I DISLIKED: Mr. Finch's excellent description of reckless youth bored me to tears. (In fairness, I should note that reckless youth generally bore me to tears.) I read fiction for enjoyment and to watch the characters develop, not be reminded of unbridled entitlement on a generational scale. Profanity offends me unless it is used with discretion and for a purpose. Gratuitous sex has its place, but that place is not in the books I read. I have always enjoyed Finch's vocabulary, which he uses with surgical precision in the Lenox series. However, his word usage here bordered on pompous and seemed incongruous in the contemporary setting. His verbal strength was a weakness in The Last Enchantments.

DISCLAIMER: I know that publishers and agents encourage authors to branch out after writing several books in a series. I hope that Mr. Finch's foray into puerile literature is a result of just such a strategic career move. However, I believe that for readers of his Lenox series, the move was a gross misstep.

I do look forward to Home By Nightfall, the Lenox book I believe is releasing later this year.

Unfortunately, not recommended.

I very much enjoy Mr. Finch's work. Each book in this series is fresh, as if it still is a pleasure for him to share his protagonist, Charles Lenox, with readers. I've enjoyed watching Lenox progress from bachelorhood to married life, as well as his transition through his careers — and back, as this book describes. Finch gets the tone of London just right, in my opinion, and depicts class differences of the period accurately and sensitively. I also appreciate his evenhanded variety of female characters.

I look forward to the next installment in this series.

 

This will be short cause I really loathed this book. It took me two days to get through. If not for the fact that a DNF does not count towards bingo, I would have done so at the 10 percent point. This book is tedious, boring, and overwrought somehow all at the same time. The main character is opposite day Sherlock Holmes. I really wanted him to reach a terrible end, but since this is the first book in a 11 book series, there was not much hope of that. I heard through reliable readers that the series gets better. I hope so.

 

I read this for the "Darkest London" square since this is a mystery taking place in London during the Victorian age. 

 

The lead character is Charles Lenox. He is self proclaimed amateur sleuth who helps out the Yard from time to time. He has a Yard inspector that doesn't like him, a close friendship with a childhood friend, another friend who is a doctor with a drinking problem, and his butler is used as his runner for certain jobs he needs him to do. When his childhood friend and London neighbor, Lady Jane asks him to look into whether a former maid of hers was murdered, he does. Frankly, I never got a good reason why Lady Jane cared, but that is neither here or there. So off Lenox goes to stick his nose in and quickly deduces that the former maid (Prudence Smith) was poisoned. Hence the name "A Beautiful Blue Death."

 

Lenox really is just a boring type of Sherlock Holmes. He fusses about being cold, his feet being cold, being wet, taking naps, how much toast to eat, his freaking tea, wine, scotch and soda, everything. I have never read so many boring descriptions about what a character was doing in one book before.

Everyone in this book is a version of a character in a Sherlock Holmes novel. I refuse to list them and all the ways. 

 

The writing was blah. Reading that when X woke up, they stretched their arms, and thought about what they would have to break their morning fast. They rose from the bed and admired their pajamas which were silk and put their feet into soft slippers. Looking around the room, X admired a winter painting of London which he thought captured London as it's most beautiful when it was quiet and no people around. Blah. The whole book was like that. He literally took a paragraph to describe a terrible ass room that he needs to re-do. I just can't anymore. Skip this first book unless you want o know the main players for future books. 

 

The ending was a mess. It didn't make much sense. I think Finch is trying to set up Lenox having his own Moriarty and once again, good luck to him. Once we find out the guilty party it's like another 50-70 pages before the book ends. Maybe I am exaggerating, I don't care enough to open my e-reader to check.