{"id":3943,"date":"2021-02-07T06:39:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T14:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3943"},"modified":"2021-02-07T06:39:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T14:39:44","slug":"charles-finch-an-extravagant-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/charles-finch-an-extravagant-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Finch: An Extravagant Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Confession: this is the first Charles Finch book I\u2019ve read.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why as it falls in my reading wheelhouse \u2013 I love historical novels and Finch is covering a period of history I enjoy reading about.\u00a0 I\u2019ve certainly devoured books by Tasha Alexander, Deanna Raybourn, Dianne Freeman, Maureen Jennings and Anne Perry.\u00a0 Finch takes a comfortable seat beside these writers, and his detective, Charles Lenox, is an appealing Englishman, covering the London streets of the 1870\u2019s.\u00a0 This is a later book in the series and Lenox is comfortably married to the glamourous and capable Lady Jane, he\u2019s settled in his career, but he has always felt a yearning to travel.<\/p>\n

When Prime Minister Disraeli calls Lenox to his office and asks him to go abroad \u2013 specifically to be away during a trial of top Scotland Yard officers he helped to expose \u2013 he\u2019s at first reluctant but the call of travel and of seeing the new world, especially as the Queen\u2019s agent, proves too much for him to resist, especially when Lady Jane gives him a gentle nudge.<\/p>\n

Before he knows it he\u2019s at sea, heading for New York.\u00a0 I found his point of view \u2013 an Englishman taking in a newly formed country \u2013 especially interesting and it made this novel stand out to me among the many other historical novels I enjoy.\u00a0 He\u2019s not in New York for too long before he plans to head to Boston, but his train is stopped on the way, and a man comes aboard looking for him.\u00a0 He has a request from someone in Newport to look into a local death, and there\u2019s a \u201cspecial\u201d (i.e. private train) standing by.\u00a0 As he is learning, America runs on money, not titles, and the promise that everyone has a chance of earning some of it for themselves.\u00a0 Newport turns out to be an especially garish example.<\/p>\n

A man he had met in New York, Blaine, an admirer who also want to be a detective, turns up on his train to Boston and ends up accompanying him to Newport.\u00a0 He is able to provide valuable local background, as his family owns one of the 50 bedroom \u201ccottages\u201d that made Newport so famous.\u00a0 The murder turns out to be the murder of one of the loveliest girls of the social season, who is rumored to be engaged to one Willie Schermerhorn and it\u2019s on the Schermerhorn property that her body has been discovered.\u00a0 It\u2019s his father who has requested Lenox though as Lenox makes clear, he\u2019s the Queen\u2019s agent, and not for hire.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certain the crime will be resolved before nightfall, but when it isn\u2019t, he takes up residence at a local boarding house and begins his investigation.\u00a0 The descriptions of Newport, the food (both high and low), and the people that live there (again, both high and low) intrigue Charles and they intrigued this reader.\u00a0 The denouement is Lady Astor\u2019s ball, and the descriptions of the almost grotesque lavishness of the affair is both fascinating and horrifying.<\/p>\n

The mystery itself, in golden age style, has few suspects, but Finch plays his cards close to the vest. The resolution is both surprising and horrifying.\u00a0 There are clues throughout that have laid the path and the ruminations of Charles at midlife as he both misses his family and relishes his experience abroad make this a book to be cherished.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Confession: this is the first Charles Finch book I\u2019ve read.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why as it falls in my reading wheelhouse \u2013 I love historical novels and Finch is covering a period of history I enjoy reading about.\u00a0 I\u2019ve certainly devoured books by Tasha Alexander, Deanna Raybourn, Dianne Freeman, Maureen Jennings and Anne Perry.\u00a0 Finch … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[507,506,508,10,510,505,509],"class_list":["post-3943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1870s-london","tag-charles-finch","tag-charles-lenox","tag-historical","tag-lady-astor","tag-macmillan","tag-newport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3945,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}