The Mystery of Albert E. Finch
A Victorian Bookclub Mystery
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
In USA Today bestselling author Callie Hutton's third Victorian Book Club mystery, will wedding bells or death knells ring for Lady Amy and Lord William?
Bath, England, 1892. Celebrated mystery author Lady Amy Lovell is set to tie the knot with Lord William Wethington, a fellow member of the Mystery Book Club of Bath. Amy's great-aunt, Lady Priscilla Granville, has offered to host their wedding at her stately Derby Manor House. But on the eve of the ceremony, the festive air in the drawing room is marred by Mrs. Alice Finch's argument with her husband, Albert, in another room. The next morning at the wedding breakfast, Alice falls face-first into her breakfast—dead.
When Amy and William's favorite detectives are summoned to the house, they see two champagne glasses in front of Mrs. Finch and none in front of her husband. Did Albert give his wife a poisoned drink? Always looking for the easiest solution, the detectives charge Albert with the murder.
But Lady Amy is not convinced that Albert is guilty. There are too many things that don't add up. In the hopes of being able to leave Bath and begin their honeymoon, Amy and William once again take things into their own hands. Suspects begin to pop up, but nothing takes them more by surprise than the discovery of a second body.
Stuck in Bath until the whole poisonous predicament is solved, Amy and William are anxious to collar the perfidious poisoner and be on their way to their honeymoon. If they can't catch the killer, not only is their newlywed bliss under threat, but they may not live to see happily-ever-after at all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1892, Hutton's light and easy third Victorian Book Club mystery (after 2021's The Sign of Death) finds Lady Amy Lovell, amateur sleuth and author of mystery novels (under a male pseudonym, of course), marrying Lord William Wethington, her wealthy and utterly besotted sweetheart. At the happy couple's wedding breakfast, held on the outskirts of Bath at Amy's great-aunt's manor house, Alice Finch, one of the 50 or so guests, is poisoned. Two Bath police detectives, who disdain Lady Amy's interference in criminal matters, hastily conclude that the culprit is Alice's husband, Albert, who stands to inherit a great deal of money from her death. Amy does not concur. The newlyweds put their honeymoon on hold as they attempt to ferret out the truth. Among those providing comic relief are Amy's grumpy father; Othello, a Shakespeare-quoting cockatoo; and Amy's much-loved dog, Persephone, though the main draw is the amusing banter between Amy and William. Cozy fans will have fun.
