Book description
Charles Lenox, Member of Parliament, sets sail on a clandestine mission
for the government. When an officer is savagely murdered, however, Lenox
is drawn toward his old profession, determined to capture another
killer.
1873 is a perilous time in the relationship between France and England.
When a string of English spies is found dead on French soil, the threat
of all-out war prompts government officials to ask Charles Lenox to
visit the newly-dug Suez Canal on a secret mission.
Once he is on board the Lucy
, however, Lenox finds himself using not his new skills of diplomacy but
his old ones: the ship's second lieutenant is found dead on the voyage's
first night, his body cruelly abused. The ship's captain begs the
temporarily retired detective to join in the hunt for a criminal. Lenox
finds the trail, but in the claustrophobic atmosphere on board, where
nobody can come or go and everyone is a suspect, he has to race against
the next crime - and also hope he won't be the victim. Charles Finch
is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. He is the author of the Charles Lenox
mysteries, including The Fleet Street Murders
, The September Society
and A Stranger in Mayfair
. His first novel, A Beautiful Blue Death
, was nominated for an Agatha Award and was named one of Library
Journal's Best Books of 2007, one of only five mystery novels on the
list.
