A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch ~ review

If you've ever visited our tea room and farm shop you'll know we have a love of books and reading so we thought it would be nice to share the occasional book review here on our blog:

"Never judge a book by it's cover" ~ but we do don't we?

It was the cover of Charles Finch's A Beautiful Blue Death that caught my eye!

"Charles Lennox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax ib his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire, and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery.

Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison."

First off I'll say that I did actually enjoy this book BUT I can see how others would find it enormously irritating and throw it aside.

Don't they say "Write what you know about"?

Sorry but Mr Finch doesn't seem to know much about the social mores of Victorian England, the geographical layout of London and maybe not that much about British history. I winced at the use of the name Lady Jane Grey for Lenox's childhood friend. Lady Jane Grey having been the unfortunate 9 day Queen of Tudor England who was executed in in 1554. I further winced at the over familiarity of servants to their employers and amongst many other anomalies was astounded to find Lenox drinking Rye rather than Scotch whiskey.  And for a gentleman to have to ask someone of lower social class than himself where to purchase waterproof boots in an age when someone of Lenox's standing would be wearing made to measure footwear, well that would have been unheard of.

"England and America are two nations separated by the same language" George Bernard Shaw

I also found the use of American English rather than British English somewhat grating ~ Lenox would have changed his trousers not his pants, eaten scones not biscuits etc etc

If you can cast all that aside it's an okay murder mystery, not exactly thrilling or over taxing, a book that's not as good as it's cover!

Having said all that it's now available to purchase in the second hand section of our 50p book sale in the tea room and farm shop.

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