Publishers Weekly
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Finch’s elegant 12th historical mystery featuring British detective Charles Lenox (after An Extravagant Death) finds the investigator probing a cold case in 1879 London. While recovering from injuries sustained during a previous case in America, Charles receives a letter from his former housekeeper, Mrs. Huggins, claiming that someone has been attempting to break into her house. She’s particularly frightened because, seven years earlier, the house’s former tenant died under suspicious circumstances that have never been explained. Charles digs into the details of that case and learns it involved an apothecary who distributed a variety of opium-derived medicines. Meanwhile, the young daughter of Charles’s recently deceased cousin arrives from India, and he helps her and her Indian friend, Sari, adjust to life in London. Finch offers a delightful mélange of crisscrossing subplots rooted in contemporaneous issues including colonialism, women’s suffrage, and poverty, and ensures that each thread enhances rather than distracts from the main mystery. Charles, meanwhile, remains a winning protagonist: intelligent and kind but never dull. This long-running series still has gas in the tank. (Nov.)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Finch’s fifteenth Charles Lenox book (after An Extravagant Death, 2021) is both an engrossing historical mystery and a revealing commentary on politics and social prejudices in 1870s London. Wealthy aristocrat Charles Lenox runs his own detective agency, and his former landlady begs him to discover why a dodgy character is sleeping on her doorstep, terrified he intends to rob or even murder her. Then Charles receives word from India that his cousin Jasper has died, with Jasper’s will appointing Charles and his wife, Jane, as guardians for Jasper’s daughter, Angela. When Angela arrives, she has her dearest friend, an Indian girl named Sari, with her—which is sure to raise eyebrows in Charles’ social circle. Meanwhile, Charles discovers that Jane is involved in the suffragist movement, and while he’s supportive, he worries about her safety and the reputational repercussions. But his landlady's case is the mystery at the heart of this novel, leading to a troubling and dangerous investigation that takes Charles from the most respected British institutions to London’s most insalubrious areas. Finch is a masterful writer whose meticulous research and gift for evoking people and places produces a richly layered, sweeping saga and a superb and mesmerizing historical mystery.

Library Journal
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In 1879 London, private investigator Charles Lenox is recovering from injuries he suffered during his last investigation (An Extravagant Death). Quite unexpectedly, he receives a letter from his former housekeeper, asking him to find out why a man keeps showing up in her doorway late at night and trying to break in. His interest piqued, Lenox discovers that a previous tenant of the house was murdered seven years earlier. He notices a strange symbol carved into the doorway of the house and, with the help of one of his employees, discovers there are other houses in the area that bear the same symbol. The more Lenox learns about the murder victim, the deeper he is drawn into a puzzle that takes him from London's slums to the inner circle of high society. At the same time, there is upheaval in his household, with Lady Jane's involvement in the women's suffrage movement and the arrival from India of the daughter of a recently deceased cousin. VERDICT Finch offers another great addition to the series, with attention to historical detail and the social mores of the day. Recommended for readers of Tasha Alexander.—Jean King

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A private detective balances family obligations with a challenging new case. Well-bred and well-connected Englishman Charles Lenox, still recovering from having been stabbed on a trip to the U.S., is waiting in Portsmouth in the winter of 1879 for the arrival of the daughter of his beloved cousin Jasper, who lived and died in India. It takes him a while to find Angela when her ship arrives—it turns out that she’d exchanged her first-class ticket for two third-class tickets so that her lifelong friend Sari could accompany her. Lenox has received a letter from Elizabeth Huggins, who cared for his bachelor rooms when he was in his 20s, asking for his help—the previous resident of her rooms died in a suspicious manner, and she believes she may be in danger. Soon after he and the girls return to London, Lenox and his friend Graham meet at Mrs. Huggins’ apartment along with her nephew, Ernest, who owns a nearby pub. They learn that her building was the scene of the unsolved murder of a chemist whose rooftop garden Mrs. Huggins still enjoys using. Someone’s taken up sleeping in the building’s entryway, and she and Ernest, who think the squatter is linked to the murder, suspect it’s Jacob Phipps, whose late wife was a patient of the chemist’s, though he’s supposedly left for Australia. They find scratches around the keyhole of the front door and what appears to be a backward letter K entwined with a straightforward F carved in an inconspicuous spot. Leaving the girls’ entry into London society to his wife, Lady Jane, Lenox and his agency pursue several leads, including the mysterious carvings he finds on other nearby buildings. Despite continuing pain and weakness from his wound, Lenox uncovers a strange plot that leads inexorably to London’s high society. A fascinating, dangerous mystery. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.