The Hidden City
A Charles Lenox Mystery
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- $329.00
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- $329.00
Descripción editorial
NAMED ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S TEN BEST MYSTERY NOVELS OF 2025 and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES' BEST FALL MYSTERIES!
Against the vividly drawn backdrop of Victorian London, amateur sleuth Charles Lenox must unlock a mystery concealed in the architecture of the city itself, in this new novel from acclaimed author Charles Finch.
It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class.
At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life: a surprising tension with his steadfast wife, Lady Jane, over her public support of the early movement for women's suffrage; the arrival of Angela Lenox, a mysterious young cousin from India, with an unexpected companion; the dizzying ascent of his brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, to one of the highest political posts in the land; the growing family of his young partners in detection, Polly and Dallington; and the return of the problems that have long bedeviled one of his closest friends, the dashing Scottish physician Thomas McConnell.
Featuring a beloved cast of characters, a top-notch puzzle, and Finch's trademark humor and richness of historical detail, The Hidden City is a novel by a master at the top of his form
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Finch's elegant 12th historical mystery featuring British detective Charles Lenox (after An Extravagant Death) finds the investigator probing a cold case in 1879 London. While recovering from injuries sustained during a previous case in America, Charles receives a letter from his former housekeeper, Mrs. Huggins, claiming that someone has been attempting to break into her house. She's particularly frightened because, seven years earlier, the house's former tenant died under suspicious circumstances that have never been explained. Charles digs into the details of that case and learns it involved an apothecary who distributed a variety of opium-derived medicines. Meanwhile, the young daughter of Charles's recently deceased cousin arrives from India, and he helps her and her Indian friend, Sari, adjust to life in London. Finch offers a delightful mélange of crisscrossing subplots rooted in contemporaneous issues including colonialism, women's suffrage, and poverty, and ensures that each thread enhances rather than distracts from the main mystery. Charles, meanwhile, remains a winning protagonist: intelligent and kind but never dull. This long-running series still has gas in the tank.
