BOOK REVIEW: The September Society by Charles Finch

I’ve read the first book in Charles Finch’s series The Charles Lenox Mysteries, A Beautiful Blue Death, and then jumped to the fifteenth, The Hidden City. I enjoyed them so much, I decided I really needed to fill in the rest.

The September Society is the second in the series. Charles Lenox is fairly well established now as a private investigator/crime solver. It’s not a particularly socially acceptable job for a member of an old aristocratic family, but Charles is good at it and it gives him great satisfaction. Although, he does feel twinges of regret that he never had the chance to stand for Parliament.

As the novel opens (in September 1866), Lenox is on edge because he needs to confess to Lady Jane Grey, his neighbor and closest friend, that he is in love with her and wants to marry. They’ve made a habit of seeing one another every day for tea, but lately, their schedules have been disrupted by other obligations. And when Lenox takes on a new case, they see each other even less.

The case that is brought to him, by Lady Annabelle Payson, a widow, is that of her missing son and a dead cat. Her son is a student at Oxford, and when she last went to visit him, she saw him only briefly. He seemed agitated and distracted. He promised to meet her at a tea shop but never arrived. When she went to his room, she found his cat, stabbed to death with a letter opener. And her son, George, was not there.

Lenox accompanies her back to Oxford to start his investigation. This is his own old stomping ground, and being there makes him nostalgic. It is a delight to experience the colleges through his eyes, and get a sense of what it would have been like to be a student there at that time. This is the cozy part of this cozy mystery. (Later descriptions of the murder victims are a bit more gruesome.)

Lenox discovers clues in the young man’s bedroom, but has no idea what to make of them. He begins by attempting to interview George’s two closest friends, only to discover one of them is missing as well. This ups the stakes. Then when a body is discovered, the seriousness of the situation escalates.

Among the clues Lenox has found is a card on which the name “The September Society” is written. As he digs deeper, the society keeps cropping up. He learns it is a small gathering of old army officers who had once fought together in India. What on earth could they have to do with the murder of a young college student?

The clues are fitted together like pieces of a puzzle. At the same time, Lenox is fretting over the fact that a strange man is visiting Lady Jane. And, his friend and investigating companion, Dr. McConnell, may be drinking too much again. And, Lenox takes on a gung-ho young gentleman, Dallington, who wants to learn the investigative ropes, but who may be more of a liability than an asset. 

The murder mystery is complex and well developed. I enjoyed the plot twists and eventual breakthroughs as Charles Lenox solved another case. And I also enjoyed watching his suit with Lady Jane progress.