Following AN OLD BETRAYAL in the Lenox amateur sleuth series set in the 1870s (and contemporary THE LAST ENCHANTMENTS), Charles Finch thrills readers with “one of the most difficult cases Lenox had encountered” in the Victorian-era whodunits, his eighth.

Aristocrat Charles Lenox has left his Member of Parliament position to form a private detective agency with colleague Lord John Dallington and two others, including Polly Strickland Buchanan. This in an era of “brocaded and upholstered women.” But the four detectives can’t find clients with a Sherlock Holmes magnifier, especially Lenox. The upstart PI agency is ripped by scurrilous newspaper quips, including uncharacteristic quotes by Scotland Yard inspector Thomas Jenkins, with whom Lenox often had collaborated.

"Perhaps the most enigmatic character involved in the Lenox series is Charles Finch himself, who weaves words as intricately as Peter Paul Rubens did tapestries."

Now, Inspector Jenkins has been murdered near the estate of “William Travers-George, the 15th Marquess of Wakefield. The title was among the highest in the land, outside of the royal family. Yet Lenox doubted strongly that there was a man capable of greater evil currently alive in England.” The “florid, overweight, and overwhelmed” Sergeant Armbruster is first on the scene, though the maladroit Keystone Kop-ish klutz is a lethargic precinct pencil pusher.

Jenkins had left word with Inspector Nicholson to contact Lenox in the event of his death. They rush to Regent’s Park, north of Buckingham Palace, where Jenkins’ body was discovered, one shoelace untied and the other triple-knotted. Inside that shoe are a cryptic claim ticket and a two-word note: Charles Lenox. Instead of tying up the case as neatly as the triple-knotted lace, another body and myriad unconnected clues “troublingly out of balance with reality” cause the case to become unraveled as the first shoelace. Has Lenox lost his luster?

Lenox encounters motley characters during his insidious investigation, and not only those from London’s underbelly called East End. Cloistered nuns, the tony Mayfair district beau monde, and Members of Parliament figure prominently. Even Queen Victoria is rumored to have been observed smoking cigarettes at Balmoral Castle! Predictably, Lenox deciphers coded messages, recondite clues, and barely dodges a bullet fired at close range. Adding enough odd numbers eventually equals an acceptable rounded one.

Perhaps the most enigmatic character involved in the Lenox series is Charles Finch himself, who weaves words as intricately as Peter Paul Rubens did tapestries.