A Death in the Small Hours: Book Review

A Death in the Small Hours by Charles Finch features Victorian upper-class gentleman Charles Lenox solving his sixth mystery. Now a respected member of Parliament, Charles misses the days when he was a detective, but feels pride in the good he is doing for the English people. While visiting his cousin in the country, Charles has the chance to solve what appears to be a standard mystery of small town vandalism, but quickly expands into murder. Working with the unprepared local police, Charles questions a variety of quirky village residents, slowly weaving together information from a variety of sources until he is sure of the guilty parties. There is a chase of horse and carriages across the countryside and a last minute surprise accomplice as a crime with national impact is discovered.
In his sixth mystery, Charles is a new father, ga-ga over his baby daughter and loving the home and circle of friends he has created with his wife. He spends time pondering the choices he's made in life, the importance of family, and duty versus pleasure as life's work. A Death in the Small Hours has a nice balance of mystery and personal story line that fit together well. I especially appreciated the ending, which was not rushed. Often a mystery ends within pages of being solved and everything ends, but here the loose ends of the smaller story lines were tied up without rambling on.

I can recommend this book and series with pleasure. They do not have to be read in order to follow the mysteries or the personal story line, but it's always nice to try.
I checked this book out from my town library and it meets the requirements for the Snagged @ the Library challenge with The Geeky Blogger and the Cloak and Dagger challenge at A Bookish Girl.