A Death in the Small Hours by Charles Finch

This is the sixth installment of the Charles Lenox mystery series set in Victorian-era London. My favorite, so far, was #5, A Burial at Sea, and that still holds true. I enjoyed "catching up" with Lenox, now that he is married to Jane and has a daughter, Sophie, but in this book he is heavily into politics and his political position instead of "sleuthing". Obviously, Lenox gets caught up in a case, though, otherwise it wouldn't be a mystery.

Charles, Jane & Sophie take a trip to his uncle's estate, Somerset, so that Charles can write an important political speech without interruption. It just so happens that his uncle had previously invited him to come for a visit because there was some vandalism going on in town that the local police couldn't figure out the significance of. So, this visit was a "kill two birds with one stone" kind of thing. Once Charles gets to Somerset and gets settled in, there is a murder in town. So then the local police really need his help. Charles alternates between interviewing townspeople, assembling clues, riding a horse to start each day refreshed, and writing his speech.

There were a couple of things that were too repetitive for my taste in this particular book. First of all, Lenox goes on and on and on about how beautiful Somerset is, how beautiful and freeing it is to live in the country (vs London), how much he loves the fresh air and taking Sophie for walks. I kept thinking that he was considering a move out of London - for the health of his family. He also was very upset that his uncle was planning to leave Somerset soon, giving it to his heir. Even Jane couldn't persuade Charles to "let it go". That got to me after awhile. I mean, who is Charles to dictate what his aging (60! Ha!) uncle wants to do? Maybe he is not up to maintaining a huge estate anymore. Maybe he simply doesn't want to!!

Anyway, Charles solves the vandalism case and the murder case, which were connected of course. But why it all happened was a little too "out there" for me. Were there clues? Yes, of course. Did I pick up on them? Not really. They were too varied and not attached in my mind. So it's always fun to see how it all comes together, but in the end, Charles, Jane and Sophie return to London and Charles presses on with his political career. Apparently, no matter how much they love the country, they have no plans to buy something in the country. (So why go on and on about how much they love it?)

Wendy's Rating: ****