An Old Betrayal
A Charles Lenox Mystery
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In An Old Betrayal, the seventh book of Charles Finch's bestselling series of Victorian mysteries, a case of mistaken identity has Charles Lenox playing for his highest stakes yet: the safety of Queen Victoria herself.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A simple favor for a friend turns into much more for Charles Lenox in Finch's engaging seventh Victorian mystery featuring the former private investigator turned MP (after 2012's A Death in the Small Hours). While Lenox's political star is on the rise and he's happily married, he welcomes the chance to resume sleuthing when his prot g , Lord John Dallington, is unable, due to a cold, to attend a rendezvous with a prospective client who has sent a cryptic note inviting Dallington to meet at a London restaurant. Lenox fills in, but, uncharacteristically, botches the job, failing to recognize in time the client-to-be, a woman later identified as being connected with Buckingham Palace, who flees the restaurant. The mystery gets progressively more complex, with an impersonation and murder, though it's less clever than Finch's best. Still, the combination of a simpatico lead and old-fashioned detection will appeal to golden age fans.