The September Society

This is the second in the series of Victorian detective novels featuring Charles Lenox, a 40ish man who had always thought to follow his grandfather, father and brother into Parliament, but somehow hasn't got 'round to standing for a seat so far. He's come to accept that sleuthing suits him, and that perhaps he should really consider proposing to his dearest and oldest friend, Lady Jane Grey. In the midst of an increasingly alarming missing persons case, however, the moment never feels quite right and he may have left it too long... I remember reading the first Lenox outing, A Beautiful Blue Death, and thinking this is a series with great promise, love the characters and the setting, and here's a gentleman doing what Sherlock Holmes show more claimed to have invented, some 30 years earlier and without the benefit of that 7% solution. The second entry in the series is even better than I expected. Set mainly among the colleges of Oxford, this is not just a grand mystery, but also a fine bit of historical fiction. I'm well and truly hooked now. Review written in 2017 show less

The September Society by Charles Finch. It would be easy to dismiss this two-book series as yet another featuring an amateur aristocrat sleuth in Victorian England (1866), but the quality of Finch’s writing makes these Charles Lenox adventures stand out above many others. Finch provides detailed scene descriptions without taking away from the action of the complex mysteries. The supporting characters: Graham, the butler, McConnell, the doctor, and Lady Jane Grey, the neighbor and beloved friend, provide elements of humor and romance to the stories that are usually positive contributions. Lenox’s hesitancy and shyness around Jane may seem like to abrupt a character change compared to his typically decisive investigative nature, but show more others may view it as making Lenox a more-developed lead actor.
This second adventure finds Lenox returning to his university at Oxford to investigate a student’s disappearance. The clues eventually lead him to The September Society, a secretive club for officers who served in one specific battalion of Her Majesty’s army in India twenty years earlier. Lenox suspects that members of the club are behind the young man’s abduction, but struggles to find a motive. The action is split between London and Oxford and Finch uses his own knowledge as a student there to expand upon the history of the town and the many colleges that make up the community.
Despite my enjoyment of the mystery, I don’t think this tale is as strong as the Agatha Award-nominated first book, A Beautiful Blue Death. The plot gets a bit convoluted at the end with too many cases of hidden identities and red herrings. I also thought the romantic subplot was distracting and did not add to the story. I did like the addition of an apprentice detective. Based on the flurry of activity that happens after the case is solved, it appears that Lenox’s personal lifestyle will be undergoing major changes in the near future. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect his ability to continue as a detective.

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Victorian sleuth Charles Lenox solves another mystery in this sequel to A Beautiful Blue Death. A woman of his acquaintance, Lady Annabelle Payson, begs him to find her son George, who recently went missing from his college at Oxford. Lenox agrees and immediately travels to Oxford, only to find that a student has been murdered. The clues found in George Payson’s bedroom point to a mysterious club called the September Society, whose members have ties to a decades-old military operation in India. As Lenox works to solve the mystery, he is distracted by some happy news from his friend McConnell, by his own studies in Roman history, and by his unspoken love for his neighbor and best friend Lady Jane.

I enjoyed this book every bit as much show more as the first in the series. So many of the secondary characters have complex stories in their own right, which is one of the strengths of this series in my opinion – there’s a lot of room for various story arcs to develop. The mystery itself is very interesting, too; it’s not so much focused on the “whodunit,” but there are a lot of surprising twists and turns in the plot. I was left feeling a bit flat about Lenox’s relationship with Lady Jane, which I thought could have used a bit more tension. Otherwise, though, I definitely liked this book and look forward to getting the next installment, The Fleet Street Murders, when it comes out! show less

This entire review is one long spoiler. Don't read it if you don't want to know important things.

Jesus God, Charles, MAN UP AND ASK HER TO MARRY YOU! I got very, very, very tired of his pussfied wishywashying about whether or not to ask this perfectly lovely long-term widow, who **moved next door to him** after her husband died, if she would consent to marry him. Dude...she's been WAITING for you to do it for like ten years!! She's never even looked at another man! HELLO?!?

Yeeesh.

So he does, after yet another book's-worth of annoying shillyshallying, and she says yes (gasp), and I lost all interest in the series. I just do not care a whit about this charming, adorable, suffocatingly cozy world any more.

Oh...this mystery is set largely show more in Oxford, which is always lovely, and the London bits that don't involve the romantic idiocy were set in a nasty club of murdering swine, the September Society, who were covering up their illicit possession of a huge hoard of gems that they'd killed this one kid's father to protect the secret of its existence. Only they didn't, see, because he fooled 'em good! He hid for 20 years to protect his abused wife and newborn son!

Oh God. Who the hell cares. I read it, I swear, from cover-to-cover, and I wondered as I read WHY I felt I needed to finish it. Charles Finch has some voodoo or another that made me want to finish it up.

I did. Poke me with a fork, I'm done now. For good.

If you need a cozy fix, and you're more wimp-tolerant than I am, go on and read it. Otherwise, Xanax is a better tranq and peyote takes you on a better trip. show less

Missing boy, mother all a twitter, odd collection of clues including a cat stabbed with a letter opener. Loved the plot, loved the characters, even though I think Charles Lenox is a bit thick as far as detectives go. What I didn't love was how intrusively the history and lore elements were incorporated. These newer writers of historical fiction need to have more faith in their readers'knowledge banks, their ability to put two and two together and figure out the allusions, or their natural curiosity to find out some of the references. They need to work the history elements in more seamlessly. It can be done. Kate Ross,for one, did it with her Julian Kestrel series. Finch did it with the Brunel and Brummel allusions. Really annoying to show more feel like I have to read a history lesson (history I know and have taught) to get along with the tale. Otherwise,I liked the book a great deal. I have many happy days in Oxford, so it was fun to visit it again. Here is a link to my pinterest board of some of the places mentioned in the book, as well as other books I have read or am reading this year. Hope it links! http://pinterest.com/lisahopelucia/air-livros-2013/ show less

Just as much fun as his first, A Beautiful Blue Death. Solid characters, good plotting, pace keeps moving, etc... Finch is definitely more involved with his characters personal lives and relationships that I think is normal for these period mysteries, but he does it well and you care about Lenox, Lady Jane, Graham, etc. Good stuff.

I had to look up where Charles Finch was as a student because this book has one of the warmest, most realistic accounts of what it feels like to study at Oxford that I've ever read. Sure enough, the author read English at Oxford (I'm guessing Balliol or Merton) and he currently resides in the city. I'll briefly mention that reading about a place you've lived and studied in is like coming home and nothing beats this feeling of comfort and move on to the plot and characters. I was first of all surprised that Charles decided very early on in the novel to propose to Lady Jane. While the first book made it clear those two loved each other, I wouldn't have said they were in love, and it's a little surprising to have their relationship change show more so quickly - after all, we are told repeatedly in the first book that their devoted friendship, however peculiar, is accepted as such by themselves and society at large. I liked that unconventional bond and didn't warm up to the idea of marriage straight away. Luckily, there are many books left ahead to convince me that it was a necessary turn of events. The end of the book is very lovely for Charles seeing as he has new career prospects, which I'm very curious to see enfold (how will that affect his detective work?). The characters are very well-drawn and frankly charming (I want to see more of Graham) and Charles' musings are smart and heartfelt, which makes him one of the most endearing characters I've met. The plot is uneven, I find - I guessed the motive straight away and it's frustrating to have to wait for the resolution to be told that one was right all along. On the other hand, I would never have guessed the various twists and turns the story took and the myriad vivid characters and clever clues that were scattered were deeply engaging and kept me riveted. This is a really good installment in the series and I felt a little sad to find out that the main detective has resolved many a murder since the first book which the author simply alludes to but doesn't develop. It felt very Sherlockian in this way and I can only hope that a book of stories is in the works for at least some of those cases. This is a really good series I plan to see through until the end (not too soon, pretty please, I'm enjoying it too much!) show less