Saturday, June 9, 2018

A Death in the Small Hours

A Death in the Small Hours (Charles Lenox Mysteries, #6)

I read a library copy and listened to the library's audiobook copy obtained through Overdrive. Having both options allows me to complete the book even when I am busy doing other things such as driving or cross-stitching.

From Charles Finch, the critically acclaimed author of A Beautiful Blue Death and A Burial at Sea, comes A Death in the Small Hours--an intriguing new mystery in what The New York Times calls "a beguiling series"
Charles Lenox is at the pinnacle of his political career and is a delighted new father. His days of regularly investigating the crimes of Victorian London now some years behind him, he plans a trip to his uncle's estate, Somerset, in the expectation of a few calm weeks to write an important speech. When he arrives in the quiet village of Plumley, however, what greets him is a series of strange vandalisms upon the local shops: broken windows, minor thefts, threatening scrawls.
Only when a far more serious crime is committed does he begin to understand the great stakes of those events, and the complex and sinister mind that is wreaking fear and suspicion in Plumley. Now, with his protege, John Dallington, at his side, the race is on for Lenox to find the culprit before he strikes again. And this time his victim may be someone that Lenox loves.

 I enjoy reading this old-fashioned mystery series set in Victorian England. It seems like something that would have been written decades ago. What is so nice about it being current is that there are still new books in the series being written. Joy! 

You must start with the first book though. All series must be read in order or you spoil the whole thing. The first book is "A Beautiful Blue Death". Even if your local library does not have it, have your librarian find a copy for you. (It's okay, it's a librarian's job to do so and they quite often enjoy the search.)

For those of you who may be wondering, this is my cross-stitch WIP (work in progress):

After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, A Daughter's Search

After the Eclipse by Sarah    Perry

I read this with the Kindle app on my phone. It is a library copy
 obtained through Overdrive. Technology is wonderful!
A fierce memoir of a mother’s murder, a daughter’s coming-of-age in the wake of immense loss, and her mission to know the woman who gave her life.
When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But that brief moment of darkness ultimately foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine, just a few feet from Sarah’s bedroom. The killer escaped unseen; it would take the police twelve years to find him, time in which Sarah grew into adulthood, struggling with abandonment, police interrogations, and the effort of rebuilding her life when so much had been lost. Through it all she would dream of the eventual trial, a conviction—all her questions finally answered. But after the trial, Sarah’s questions only grew. She wanted to understand her mother’s life, not just her final hours, and so she began a personal investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, taking her deep into the abiding darkness of a small American town. Told in searing prose, After the Eclipse is a luminous memoir of uncomfortable truth and terrible beauty, an exquisite memorial for a mother stolen from her daughter, and a blazingly successful attempt to cast light on her life once more.


I found this memoir on a list of recommendations and was quite surprised to find that it takes place in the little town in Maine where we have a vacation home. The shops and streets and the Italian restaurant that figures largely on the night of the murder are all so familiar.

I would have found the story compelling even without the familiarity of the setting. It is told by a woman whose young, beautiful mother is brutally murdered while her 12-year-old self hides in the next room. She tells of her family background, marked by violence and dysfunction, as well as her struggles to make a better life for herself, a life very different from her mother's and one that her mother would want for her.