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89th out of 419 books
—
401 voters
The Fleet Street Murders (Charles Lenox Mysteries #3)
by
Charles Finch (Goodreads Author)
The third book in the Charles Lenox series finds the gentleman detective trying to balance a heated race for Parliament with the investigation of the mysterious simultaneous deaths of two veteran reporters. It’s Christmas, 1866, and amateur sleuth Charles Lenox, recently engaged to his best friend, Lady Jane Grey, is happily celebrating the holiday in his Mayfair townhouse...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
November 10th 2009
by Minotaur Books
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First Sentence: It was late in the evening, and a thin winter rain beat down over London’s low buildings and high steeples, collecting in sallow pools beneath the streetlights and insinuating its way inside the clothes of the miserable few whom fate had kept outside.
Amateur sleuth Charles Lenox is recently engaged to his best friend and neighbor, Lady Jane Grey, and is running for parliament in the small town of Stirrington, north of London. However, two important Fleet Street journalists are mu...more
Amateur sleuth Charles Lenox is recently engaged to his best friend and neighbor, Lady Jane Grey, and is running for parliament in the small town of Stirrington, north of London. However, two important Fleet Street journalists are mu...more
I would go to the bookstore very often and every time I would pause at this book until finally I picked it up and bought it. I wish I would have known that was the third in the series but glad I could read it out of order. I really enjoyed this book. It is very similar to a Sherlock Holmes book except with a more personable character as the detective. There is a character similar to Watson, Moriarty, Mycroft, and even Lestrad. It had enough differences though that it didn't feel like a total She...more
The Fleet Street Murders is the third novel in Charles Finch's series of Victorian-era mysteries starring gentleman detective Charles Lenox. The story begins on Christmas in 1866. It's a pleasant day for Lenox who is still basking in the glow of having recently become engaged to his long-time friend and love of his life, Lady Jane Grey. But the day is not a pleasant one for two journalists across town. Within minutes of each other, Winston Carruthers and Simon Pierce are stabbed and shot (respec...more
It's official: I'm addicted to Charles Finch's delightful Victorian mysteries featuring the very noble, in every sense of the word, Charles Lenox. In this outing, Lenox faces a tangle of intrigue as he investigates what lies behind the almost simultaneous murders of two of Fleet Street's best while he is also contesting for a seat in Parliament and coping with the sudden doubts of his long-time love and fiancée, Lady Jane Grey. Through satisfying twists and turns, earnest, deeply decent Lenox co...more
The third book in this series was wonderful from start to finish. Charles Lenox is at his best in this book, besotted with his fiance Lady Jane Grey, campaigning for a seat in Parliament while simultaneously trying to solve the double homicide of two journalists. Some of the story takes place in Stirrington (a smallish town north of London) where Charles is trying to win over the people to gain their vote and represent them in Parliament. Unfortunately for him he is going up against a local busi...more
It's refreshing to find a series with a detective who is quiet, intelligent, and decent. Don't get me wrong; some of the detectives who are alcoholic, anti-social, shell-shocked, miserably partnered, devastatingly widowed, etc. are well-drawn and engaging. However, as Jasper Fforde so mercilessly showed up in *The Big Over-Easy*, characterization by quirk has been overdone, and Lenox is a good antidote. In fact, Lenox is almost a challenge to the axiom that the detective has to be some kind of o...more
At this point in the semester, I need some escapism, even with the arrival of Spring. I found this novel among the recommendations in the 14-day express books at the Manhasset Public Library, and I decided that a British murder mystery was just the tonic necessary. Nothing here will tax the brain heavily, but one can spend a delightful few hours sleuthing with a fine amateur detective of the veddy British upper class in Winter 1860s. He is also running for Parliament, and he has the requisite en...more
Another interesting story in this historical series in which the main character, Charles Lenox, is running for a seat in Parliament and due to the death of the man who would have retired leaving the vacant seat, he must go north to Stirrington and do a very intense two-week campaign. All this while two murders of prominent newspaper reporters baffle London and Scotland Yard, with Lenox itching to get his nose in and discover the truth.
Enjoyable story, interesting characters and easy-reading styl...more
Enjoyable story, interesting characters and easy-reading styl...more
The end of Charles Finch's books is always so, so beautiful and beautifully written. I love detective novels but if I could ask for one thing of the author, it would be to have him write a general fiction book with the same characters. I love them that much. I read something in which he admitted that his favourite part of the books was always the end once the plot was wrapped up and he could concentrate on just the characters and their day-to-day life - 'It's my favorite part of writing the Leno...more
Charles Lenox has been asked to run for a seat in parliament. The incumbent has died unexpectedly which gives him about 2 weeks to meet the people in the constituency and win their support. A member takes him down to meet the people. A publican named Crook is handling his campaign there. Mr. Crook's inn is a rather respectable place and his help are quite good. Charles takes Graham down with him because Graham has a way of getting to know people and they like him. But there have a been a couple...more
Have enjoyed series - ordering next book. :)
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Fleet Street picks up shortly after The September Society. While Lennox and Lady Jane are planning their wedding two things happen nearly concurrently. The first, which is what the book is titled, is a pair of near simultaneous murders on Fleet Street. Two journalists are murdered in their own homes. The two murders set the city alight and, as always amateur sleuth Charles Lennox itches to get at the cases. However the death of the man sitting in a Parliament seat up north makes Lennox's involve...more
I read out of sequence here in error, I wondered how Charles became engaged to Lady Jane so quickly and then realised I missed a book. However, I went on in any event. These books are lovely and easy, a simple mystery, lots of meal taking which was all these well to do people seemed to do in Victorian times, breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea and drinks in between. Their days consisted of very little else, some catching up with correspondence, reading and visiting friends. Charles fills his time as a...more
It's Christmas, 1866, and Charles Lenox, amateur detective, is enjoying the holiday with his brother, his brother's wife and children, and his own betrothed, Lady Jane Grey. But the next day, Lenox reads in the papers of two murders: Winston Carruthers, a journalist/newspaper editor for a conservative paper, has been killed, as has Simon Pierce, who writes for and edits a liberal newspaper. Carruthers, we see, has been working on some kind of exposé, and it seems clear that the crimes are someho...more
This is the third book in a series by Charles Finch featuring his Victorian Age detective, Charles Lennox.
Charles Lennox is a middle-aged bachelor who enjoys his comforts, has a penchant for ancient Rome, books, rowing on the Thames, walking about his part of London, visiting with his brother's family and his friends, Lady Jane and the McConnells, and solving crimes. He is ably assisted by his valet, Graham, Scotland Yard Inspector Jenkins, and his detecting apprentice, the son of a Duke, Dallin...more
Charles Lennox is a middle-aged bachelor who enjoys his comforts, has a penchant for ancient Rome, books, rowing on the Thames, walking about his part of London, visiting with his brother's family and his friends, Lady Jane and the McConnells, and solving crimes. He is ably assisted by his valet, Graham, Scotland Yard Inspector Jenkins, and his detecting apprentice, the son of a Duke, Dallin...more
This series has been pretty run-of-the-mill for me so far. The second book improved over the first, and I had hopes that this third installment would continue to get better. Alas, I found it scattered and fairly uninteresting, with too much time divided between the election and the actual case. So much time was spent on the election, in fact, that I half-expected the murder to be solved by Lenox's confederates in London.
There are four different plots going on in 300 pages:
1. The murders: are th...more
There are four different plots going on in 300 pages:
1. The murders: are th...more
This is the third book in the Charles Lenox series and was a thoroughly enjoyable read. A good part of this book focused on Charles’ run for Parliament. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted him to win his seat or not and am not sure I’m happy with the results, but we’ll see.
The mystery was almost overshadowed by the campaign for Parliament, but it was blended well into the overall story. This I’m sure was helped by likable townsfolk and Lenox’s true passion for being a member of Parliament. I liked t...more
The mystery was almost overshadowed by the campaign for Parliament, but it was blended well into the overall story. This I’m sure was helped by likable townsfolk and Lenox’s true passion for being a member of Parliament. I liked t...more
I picked this book up after only looking at the cover. It happens to be the third in a series by Mr. Finch and while I wish I had grabbed his first instead, I have those on order.
It falls quite clearly into the ratiocentric English detective fiction pantheon that includes Sherlock Holmes. And like the stories by Conan Doyle, there is action, but it takes second place to the musings of our protagonist. Like Holmes, he has his elder brother, his collection of associates (including a retired MD) an...more
It falls quite clearly into the ratiocentric English detective fiction pantheon that includes Sherlock Holmes. And like the stories by Conan Doyle, there is action, but it takes second place to the musings of our protagonist. Like Holmes, he has his elder brother, his collection of associates (including a retired MD) an...more
A mystery set in 1866 England. Guess what? The detective, Charles Lenox, reminds us of a more sympathetic Sherlock Holmes, complete with the functional equivalents of Watson, Holmes's brother Mycroft, Inspector Lestrade, Professor Moriarty, and Holmes's quirky living quarters . Unfortunately, Lenox makes his case-solving breakthroughs not on exquisite logic and deductions like Holmes, but on brilliant intuitive flashes, almost godlike in their conception--much less believable. Also, to me at le...more
Although nominally about two murders on Fleet Street (which happen in the prologue), much of the first two thirds of the book focuses on Charles Lenox's campaign in a northern town for a seat in parliament. So instead of reading about Lenox investigating the murders, we hear about the murders second hand through visits to Lenox, telegrams and newspaper reports. The book also gets bogged down a bit in lengthy descriptions of people, places, and events. For example, there's over a page of backgrou...more
An excellent mystery series returning us not only to the golden-edged days of whodunits, but also to England in the 1860s. The setting allows a more formal and elaborate use of language than modern novels will permit, and I enjoy this aspect as much as the crime solving.
Charles Lenox is in the tradition of eccentric high-class fellows keen on detecting (though with a well-rounded education and knowledge base), but his other ambition is to serve in parliment and further progressive causes. A goo...more
Charles Lenox is in the tradition of eccentric high-class fellows keen on detecting (though with a well-rounded education and knowledge base), but his other ambition is to serve in parliment and further progressive causes. A goo...more
Intriguing story for the third mystery in the Charles Lenox series; lots of period detail that you don't normally learn about that I love, convoluted plotting, and gentle peeks into the main character's feelings. The murder detecting is made more difficult by the Stirrington election for member of Parliament, but it gives the author a good opportunity to explain by example how the political process worked in Victorian England. The denouement is particularly satisfying because of the tie back to...more
The Fleet Street Murders, by Charles Finch, was an easy, pleasant read, a good thing right now since I'm pretty busy. While the plot didn't really pick up steam until the second half of the book, readers did get an informative overview of a British political campaign. Granted, this campaign was set in the 19th century, but it's hard to imagine things have changed much since then. What's particularly unique about the British political system is that a person didn't have to live in the district he...more
Third book in the Charles Lenox series, The Fleet Street Murders is set in 1866 London at Christmastime. Thoroughly enjoyable whodunit as well as a fascinating look at historical London, including a brief mention of Dickens working in London. Charles is torn between important priorities: his fiancee Jane, his friends Thomas & Toto, his campaign for Parliament requiring weeks far from home, and a murder case involving 2 Fleet Street journalists. Just as we juggle commitments in our modern eve...more
The third effort by Finch was not nearly as good as the first two. The story is disjointed, spending as much time away from the mystery as with it. The mystery picks up a plot line from a previous book but the telling lacks depth. In my opinion, Finch could have created a lot more suspense and interest by concentrating on the murders. The feel for Victorian England continues to be excellent.
As I'd quite enjoyed the first two novels featuring the amateur gentleman detective Charles Lenox, I picked up this one.
Like its predecessors, The Fleet Street Murders definitely reminded me of traditional British cozies; however, as familiar as some of the tropes are from the fairly uncooperative police inspector to the especially convenient assistance of an loyal valet, the quality of Finch's prose adds depth and interest and the occasional twist to traditional plots and figures.
The result i...more
Like its predecessors, The Fleet Street Murders definitely reminded me of traditional British cozies; however, as familiar as some of the tropes are from the fairly uncooperative police inspector to the especially convenient assistance of an loyal valet, the quality of Finch's prose adds depth and interest and the occasional twist to traditional plots and figures.
The result i...more
A pleasant read. Finch is at his best in describing how someone in the mid-19th century would keep informed over the stretches of place—through newspapers, telegraphs, letters, trains, couriers. He's at his worst in sketching a kind of 3rd string version of the romance between Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. No particular need to read another in this series.
Definitely another step up in writing quality for this series. Although it continues to be plagued by historical inaccuracies, especially in dialogue, it also has well-depicted and unusual settings and likeable characters. The latter probably being the reason why I keep reading these. The mystery was well-plotted enough that I stayed up too late one evening finishing.
My biggest complaint with this installment is the lack of characterization for Lady Jane. It's not even that she's too perfect (a...more
My biggest complaint with this installment is the lack of characterization for Lady Jane. It's not even that she's too perfect (a...more
For me, the first book in the series is always the best (usually) because all the books that follow after that always (or at least most of the time) follow the same formula as the first. I can’t say that this series is different in that regard but the steady changes in the characters make the series progress consistently and with enough action to keep the reader interested and engaged in the story. There isn’t much carry over from book to book, meaning the mystery is solved, start to finish, in...more
I picked this up on impulse from a library display. I enjoyed it as a period novel set in one of my very favorite spots - 1860s London. It's also a deft character study of gentleman detective and man about town Charles Lenox. Lots of fun.
I have to add, for those who really enjoy tight plotting and following clues - this is no Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. I was surprised that the plot seemed kind of obvious and at some points, a little bit as if the mystery was secondary to the other things...more
I have to add, for those who really enjoy tight plotting and following clues - this is no Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. I was surprised that the plot seemed kind of obvious and at some points, a little bit as if the mystery was secondary to the other things...more
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
My name is Charles Finch - welcome! I'm the author of the Charles Lenox series of historical mysteries, starting with A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH and extending through, most recently, A DEATH IN THE SMALL HOURS. They're all set in Victorian London, and have been translated into...more
More about Charles Finch...
My name is Charles Finch - welcome! I'm the author of the Charles Lenox series of historical mysteries, starting with A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH and extending through, most recently, A DEATH IN THE SMALL HOURS. They're all set in Victorian London, and have been translated into...more
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Jan 28, 2010 02:11pm
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