The Woman in the Water
A Prequel to the Charles Lenox Series
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4.4 • 145 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This chilling new mystery in the USA Today bestselling series by Charles Finch takes readers back to Charles Lenox’s very first case and the ruthless serial killer who would set him on the course to become one of London’s most brilliant detectives.
London, 1850: A young Charles Lenox struggles to make a name for himself as a detective…without a single case. Scotland Yard refuses to take him seriously and his friends deride him for attempting a profession at all. But when an anonymous writer sends a letter to the paper claiming to have committed the perfect crime—and promising to kill again—Lenox is convinced that this is his chance to prove himself.
The writer’s first victim is a young woman whose body is found in a naval trunk, caught up in the rushes of a small islets in the middle of the Thames. With few clues to go on, Lenox endeavors to solve the crime before another innocent life is lost. When the killer’s sights are turned toward those whom Lenox holds most dear, the stakes are raised and Lenox is trapped in a desperate game of cat and mouse.
In the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, this newest mystery in the Charles Lenox series pits the young detective against a maniacal murderer who would give Professor Moriarty a run for his money.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1850, Finch's uneven 11th novel starring aristocratic London sleuth Charles Lenox (after 2016's The Inheritance) recounts Lenox's first serious inquiry, undertaken when he was just 23. Lenox and Graham, his Bunter-like valet ("who every fifteen days or so let slip a small joke at his employer's expense"), routinely peruse the papers for crime stories. An anonymous letter-writer to one newspaper boasts of having committed the perfect murder and of his intention to kill a second woman around the first crime's one-month anniversary. The pair deduce that the writer refers to the unsolved strangulation of an unidentified woman found on an island in the Thames, and Lenox uses his family connections to get access to Sir Richard Mayne, the head of Scotland Yard, and a role in the investigation. Finch supplies an extremely clever solution to the murder mystery, but the dynamic between Lenox and his servants can feel more farcical than realistic, and describing the 19th century as the one "in which murder became a real notion" is ill-phrased, at best. Still, this entry will please series fans.
Customer Reviews
Fast Fun Read
Lovely time travel to old Victorian England - fun whodunit!
The Woman in the Water
Having read every Lenox novel, it is great seeing the clock rewound to where it all started. The elegance of prose, the masterful plotting, the empathy of the lead character will make you return to Finch novels again and again. Enjoy. I do.