Really enjoyed this book. Lennox is sent to America by the Prime Minster for safety (to get him out of Britain during a trial that had him uncovering corruption in the police ranks). While there he gets telegram from a wealthy Newporter who wants him to help with the investigation of the murder of his debutante daughter. On the train he meets a handicapped man who would like to be a detective and has followed Lennox’s career and offers his assistance since his family has a “cottage” in Newport and knows the people involved. Lots of early Newport history and comparisons of our Gilded Age and Victorian England as he makes his rounds and inquiries of all the suspects. Fabulous climax but hoping this is not the end of the series. ( )

An Extravagant Death by Charles Finch
In his 14th Charles Lenox mystery, Charles Finch has written an entertaining, if uneven, entry in this long-term Victorian series.
Charles Lenox has just spent two months investigating a series of robberies that led him to trouble within Scotland Yard, identifying three of four Detective Chief Inspectors involved in corruption, shocking Parliament and the people of London. To minimize damage to the ministers who recommended these detectives initially, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli believes it would be better if Lenox provided his testimony in writing and was out of the country during the actual trial. Disraeli proposes that Lenox “should meet with the police in the major American cities to establish international investigative cooperation and exchange the latest methods.”
As Lenox rides by train from NYC to Boston for the second leg of his visit, at an interim stop, he receives a telegram requesting he help with the investigation of the murder of a young woman in Newport, RI, where the wealthiest citizens of NY have “cottages”. One of those residents, a Wm Schermerhorn IV has requested the urgent assistance in investigating the murder. When a follow up telegram remarks on the unfitness of the local police, Lenox decides to put aside his future appointments and head to Newport to assist in the investigation.
Lenox’s investigation takes him to the cliffside mansions of Newport, where in addition to dealing with the murder of Lily Allingham, he finds preparations ongoing for Lady Caroline Astor’s annual ball opening the spring season in Newport. There, Lenox is treated to the wealth, glitter and glamour of 1880s Newport, surely something that would rival scenes to be found in aristocratic London.
Lenox’s charm is ever present, and he moves through the Newport society with his normal steadfastness. However, the pace of his investigation is restrained and the path to the resolution is exciting, but somewhat strained. Still, fans of Charles Finch should find much to like in his latest Charles Lenox mystery.
I thank NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an Advanced Reading Copy of this book. ( )

Eminent British detective Charles Lenox is sent to the US to get him out of Britain and prevent him testifying at a police corruption trial in London. His testimony will likely embarrass the government of PM Benjamin Disraeli and perhaps cause its downfall. Once in the US Charles investigates the suspicious death of a young socialite in Newport, where the immensely wealthy have their summer homes. This investigation provides a platform to examine the lives of the "rich and famous" in America, contrasting their lives with the lot of the ordinary people. Charles brings an English perspective to the scene. He notes for instance how in America a person's wealth determines their standing in society. He laments how the Americans are using their wealth to buy up the assets of destitute European nobility and gentry and transport them to America.
Charles' investigation of the suspicious death, which quickly is deemed to be a murder, is the basis for most of the story. The people of Newport play a large role in it, and he soon identifies several potential murderers. The climax/conclusion is exciting as Charles somewhat foolishly confronts the killer on his own and is severely injured.
At the end of the story, I was left in doubt about what is next for Charles (and the series). He is questioning what he wants to do with the rest of his life (he is in middle aged), and it appears that his career as a detective is over. Whether this is the last book in the Charles Lenox series remains to be seen.
I enjoyed it as a fast paced mystery story, with plenty of period detail and interesting characters. Recommended as good historical fiction. ( )

London, 1878. For political reasons, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli asks the most famous detective in Britain, Charles Lenox, to leave the country for a few weeks. But Charles would rather refuse, for his wife has just given birth to their second daughter, and his work has taken him away from home too often. However, he’s always dreamed of travel, and Disraeli is nothing if not persuasive. With his family’s blessing, Charles sets sail.

New York captures his fancy, but it’s on a train to Boston that an importunate, extremely wealthy man named Schermerhorn, of old Knickerbocker lineage, has sent an equally importunate bodyguard to request Charles’s presence in Newport, Rhode Island. A murder has taken place, and Schermerhorn requires his help; Lenox may name his price.

You need not have read any of the prior thirteen installments in the Lenox series to understand that such a peremptory request — delivered at an unscheduled stop on the train, arranged by Schermerhorn — would irritate any English gentleman of breeding. Charles, though liberal-minded about many aspects of life, might have turned away on principle, except that the brightest spot in his trip so far has been Teddy Blaine, a young, would-be detective who’s followed Charles’s cases with keen interest and an even keener mind. Teddy pleads with Lenox to ignore Schermerhorn’s manner and look into the case.

So Charles investigates the death of a beautiful, nineteen-year-old debutante, Lily Allingham, who took a fatal blow to the head. Lily had many suitors, but the two most serious were Schermerhorn’s son and his rival, a Vanderbilt, if you please. Given the immediate circumstances Charles observes in Newport, such as the timing of the death, position of the body, and so forth, he suspects both young men.

Naturally there are lies, other suspects, and inconvenient facts that cloud the picture. But, as with all Lenox novels, Finch has social commentary in mind as well as mystery, and he has a field day here. Even a moderately wealthy English aristocrat can’t fathom the opulence on display in Newport or square it with the way most people live. For instance, he hears of the “cottages” that front the ocean along a cliff, only to discover that they are thirty-bedroom mansions, decorated with English treasures sold by impecunious dukes.

The pretense at plainness is a sham; witness the hundreds of servants on staff, from gardeners to kitchen maids, who make the house run — a summer house, be it known. It’s this world within a world that Lenox must navigate, and though Teddy Blaine helps him (coming from a wealthy family himself), many social or cultural cues go over his head.

For the most part, I like the mystery, cleverly conceived, with plenty of reversals, though I find the political reasons for Charles’s departure from America a bit contrived. More significantly, the surprise resolution devolves into psychological territory I usually think of as a copout, though I will say that Finch comes close to making up for it with a nuanced approach. I can’t recall another Lenox novel with even the whiff of copout, and I’ve read at least a half-dozen.

An Extravagant Death offers many pleasures, however, especially the social scenes, all rendered with authority, whether a meeting with Disraeli or a Caroline Astor soirée, complete in fascinating detail. Regular Lenox readers will wonder, in the first third or so of the book, what happened to the quaint facts that Finch loves to explain; never fear, they’ll come in time. If you’ve ever wondered how such idioms as backlog, grapevine, or white elephant entered the language, or what a calling card with one corner folded down signified, wonder no more.

Equally characteristic of the series, each book explores a different, relatively untouched aspect of Charles’s life, in this case, fatherhood. The narrative doesn’t dwell long on this subject, but I like what appears very much, and these scenes also give an idea of how an upper-classic Victorian family viewed children.

Overall, I’d judge An Extravagant Death of lesser note than a couple others in the series, including the previous volume, The Last Passenger. But even a less-than-stellar Lenox tale is very good. ( )

This book was entertaining, largely in its descriptions of cozy inns, drinks, and food. However, it didn't surpass "ok," in my opinion. I guessed the answer to the mystery early on in the book. There were also a bit too many characters introduced. ( )