On a spring morning in London, 1875, Charles Lenox agrees to take time away from his busy schedule as a Member of Parliament to meet an old protégé's client at Charing Cross. But, when their cryptic encounter seems to lead, days later, to the murder of an innocuous country squire, this fast favor draws Lenox inexorably back into his old profession. Soon, he realizes that, far from concluding the murderer's business, this body is only the first step in a cruel plan, many years in the plotting. Where will he strike next? The answer, Lenox learns with slowly dawning horror, may be at the very heart of England's monarchy.
Ranging from the slums of London to the city's corridors of power, the newest Charles Lenox novel bears all of this series' customary wit, charm, and trickery-a compulsive escape to a different time.
"[A] superior series. . . . With the compassion and cynicism of Anthony Trollope, the sharply drawn heroes and villains of Charles Dickens and his own deft hand at sleight of plot, Finch has again blessed readers with a strong historical mystery, brimming with character and period, and the perfect puzzle with which to while away a winter's evening."
Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Engaging...the combination of a simpatico lead and old-fashioned detection will appeal to golden age fans."
Publishers Weekly
"The upper-class amateur sleuth, an endangered species even in historical mysteries, is very much alive in Charles Finch's charming Victorian whodunits."