A Stranger in Mayfair - (Charles Lenox Mysteries) by Charles Finch (Paperback)

About the Book

Returning from a honeymoon with his new wife, Lady Jane, Charles Lenox is asked by a colleague in Parliament to consult in the murder of a footman. His investigation uncovers some unsettling facts about the family the he served and a strange, second identity that the footman himself cultivated.

Book Synopsis

In Charles Finch's A Stranger in Mayfair, the next enthralling installment in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, detective Lenox tries to resist the lure of a case and focus on his new career in Parliament.

Returning from a continental honeymoon with his new wife, Lady Jane, Lenox is asked by a colleague in Parliament to consult in the murder of a footman, bludgeoned to death with a brick. His investigation uncovers some unsettling facts about the family he served and a strange, second identity that the footman himself cultivated.

Going into the boxing clubs and public houses, the Mayfair mansions and servants' quarters of Victorian London, Lenox gradually realizes that an old friend may be implicated in the footman's death. Soon a suspect is arrested, but Lenox has his doubts. Desperately trying to balance the opening of Parliament and what he feels sure is a dark secret surrounding the murder, he soon discovers that the killer is someone seemingly beyond suspicion, and may be prepared to spill blood again--even a detective's.

Review Quotes

"There are echoes of Holmes and Watson here, but Lenox is his own man: a humanist, even a kind of feminist, with a deep curiosity and compassion for others that belies his class." --The New Yorker on the Charles Lenox Mysteries

"An absolute delight . . . Finch vividly brings 1860s London to life." --USA Today

"Readers of Anne Perry should be snatching up Finch's books and clamoring for more." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Perfect for fans of Lord Peter Wimsey." --The Wichita Eagle

"A beguiling Victorian mystery." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review on The Fleet Street Murders

"The best sort of historical mystery--clever, charming, full of period detail, and a delight to read." --David Liss, author of The Devil's Company, on A Beautiful Blue Death

About the Author

Charles Finch is the USA Today bestselling author of the Charles Lenox mysteries, including The Vanishing Man. His first contemporary novel, The Last Enchantments, is also available from St. Martin's Press. Finch received the 2017 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle. His essays and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Washington Post, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles.