Created by Charles Finch
London in the 1870s. Gas lights. Hansom cabs. Gentlemen’s clubs. Fog. And murder.
When the going gets tough, who ya gonna call?
Evidently CHARLES LENOX, a Victorian sleuth, a graduate of Oxford, the son of a baronet and a very rich gentleman indeed; a former explorer and Member of Parliament, and–much to the dismay of his peers–currently part of a thriving detective agency.
The inspiration is obviously Doyle, but this is Sherlock Holmes gone upscale. Critics have praised the author’s literate wit and elegance, as well as his detailed historical research, lauding him for bringing Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Charles Dickens into the mix.
It sounds like an Anglophile wet dream. I’m surprised it isn’t already a show on PBS.
UNDER OATH
- “Finch is a clever plotter and assiduous researcher. Like Anthony Trollope, he is an insiderís outsider. If you are a mystery addict seeking an escape hatch from the 21st century, check out this series by an elegant writer at the top of his form.”
— Seattle Times on Home By Nightfall - “No mystery writer except perhaps Anne Perry is as successful as Charles Finch at evoking the atmosphere of Victorian London.”
— The Washington Post - “Beguiling. . . . Character is very much at the core of these whodunits.”
— Marilyn Stasio (New York Times Book Review)
NOVELS
- A Beautiful Blue Death (2007) | Buy this book
- The September Society (2008) | Buy this book
- The Fleet Street Murders (2009) | Buy this book
- A Stranger in Mayfair (2010) | Buy this book
- A Burial at Sea (2012) | Buy this book
- A Death in the Small Hours (2013) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- An Old Betrayal (2013) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Laws of Murder (2014) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Home By Nightfall (2015) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Inheritance (2016) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Woman in the Water (2018) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Vanishing Man (2019) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- The Last Passenger (2020) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- An Extravagant Death (2021) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS
- “An East End Murder” (November 2011, digital) | Kindle it!
- “Gone Before Christmas” (October 2017, digital) | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
I am currently on book #10 in the series and am wondering if Mr. Finch might write mysteries about or including Sir John Fielding at some point. Enjoy the stories that include Oxford – I did a study at Corpus Christi. Sir John Fielding is such an interesting character – especially where detectives and London police are concerned. Just wondering.
I have no idea, although if Finch does ever write about Fielding, it’s unlikely it will be in the Lenox series–Fielding died about a century before the Lenox books take place.