The Mystery of Albert E. Finch: A Victorian Bookclub Mystery
Prolific author Callie Hutton sets the third installment of her Victorian Book Club Mystery series in Bath, England. It is 1892, and our protagonist, Lady Amy Lovell, contemplates a momentous life change. She, “an independent woman who earned her own money” (as an author of mystery books!), has married her longtime friend, dance partner, and fellow member of the Mystery Book Club of Bath, Lord William Wethington. But the wedding celebrations—including the newlyweds’ highly anticipated honeymoon at Brighton Beach—are suddenly on hold. Shockingly, wedding guest Alice Finch has fallen dead—face-first into her breakfast plate during the wedding breakfast hosted by Amy’s great-aunt, Lady Priscilla Granville. Was Alice poisoned by her husband, Albert E. Finch, with whom she’d recently been heard arguing loudly? Local detectives Carson and Marsh—who fans of the series will recognize—think it is an open-and-shut case. But Amy and William are not convinced. Soon, another murder complicates everything.
Hutton delivers an easy-reading, even overly cozy, story. There are sprinkles of fun references—to Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for instance. Still, some readers may come away wishing for more such allusions, along with a richer historical context, characters with more depth, and a plot with faster pace.