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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

A Beautiful Blue Death

by Charles Finch

First off - I love this cover and I'm not sure why.  Is it the colors?  Or the old fashion apothecary bottles?  Or is it because it makes good use of the 'rule of thirds?  It's probably all those mixed together because I can't pinpoint any one reason but I do find it very appealing.

A Beautiful Blue Death is the first of the Charles Lenox mystery series.  I love it when I actually start a series at the beginning.  The first part is a slow going as the stage is being set and the characters introduced.  I rather like Lenox, a Victorian gentleman who is also an amateur sleuth.  A dear lady-friend of his asks him to look into the death of a former domestic. Joining the story as an aid to Lenox is an alcoholic, washed up doctor.  At that point in the book I threw up my arms in despair as I realized this was merely a remake of Sherlock Holmes.  Add to the mix of characters a brother who works in the Parliament.  "Oh no," says I.  "This is really too much!"

I continued reading, however, and discovered that, although Lenox, the doctor, and the brother resemble the Sherlock characters, there were qualities in the characters that endeared them to me and I also grew interested in the plot.  As Lenox narrowed down the list of suspects and was convinced of the guilty party, that person turned up murdered.

I look forward to reading the next in this series and watching the character development and the relationships between the major characters.

Just checked and discovered there are already six books in this series.  I better get reading!  The covers continue to appeal to me so I am going to show them here as a reminder of the correct order.
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