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. Across London, however, two journalists have just met with violent deaths—one shot, one throttled. Lenox soon involves himself in the strange case but must leave it behind to go north to Stirrington, where he is running for Parliament. Once there, he gets a further shock when Lady Jane sends him a letter whose contents may threaten their nuptials. In London, the police apprehend two unlikely and unrelated murder suspects. From the start, Lenox has his doubts; the crimes, he is sure, are tied. But how? Racing back and forth between London and Stirrington, Lenox must negotiate the complexities of crime and politics, not to mention his imperiled engagement. But as the case mounts, Lenox learns that the person behind the murders may be closer to him—and his beloved—than he knows.
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“Somewhere in detective heaven, Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey are already preparing a glass of hot whisky for Mr. Charles Lenox . This suave and flinty sleuth has a gorgeously dangerous future ahead of him, and so do lovers of Victorian mysteries. I can’t wait to see where Charles Finch takes us next.”
— Louis Bayard, author of The Black Tower
With its vivid evocation of Victorian England and an appealing protagonist, this is a worthy addition to a fine series of historical whodunits.
— BooklistBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Charles Finch is the author of the USA Today bestselling Charles Lenox mysteries, including A Beautiful Blue Death, which was nominated for an Agatha Award and was named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2007. He is a graduate of Yale and Oxford.
James Langton, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.