This backlist cozy mystery crossed my radar recently: A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. It had such positive reviews that I put it on my TBR list. It truly lived up to the buzz.
It doesn’t get any cozier. Charles Lennox is a Victorian gentleman of sufficient means, the brother of a baronet, of whom he is fond. He lives next door to Lady Jane, his best friend. They take tea together regularly, which is his greatest pleasure, excepting the occasional luxury of an afternoon nap. Creature comforts are key. For excitement, he plans trips to faraway locations, trips that he never manages to take.
But he has a decidedly uncozy hobby. He solves mysteries. He solves them more quickly and correctly than the dunces at Scotland Yard.
Lady Jane asks him to look into the death of a girl who used to be one of her maids. The girl left to join the household where her fiancé was a footman. Lennox cannot say no. Even though the death occurred in the home of a high ranking government official who calls in Scotland Yard and bars Lennox from poking his nose in.
Nevertheless, Lennox continues to work on the case. He can number the suspects on two hands, but cannot find motive or opportunity for any of them. Until another murder takes place in the same house.
Lennox is darling. And he is surrounded by a charming supporting cast of thoroughly British characters. This is the first book in a series, so I suppose I have a slew of new books to add to my TBR pile.
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