On a recent trip to the library, I picked up an interesting little book called The September Society by Charles Finch. It is a historical mystery (fiction), dealing with a murder occurring at Oxford University in 1866 and detective Charles Lenox, who works to solve it.

This was my first book of Finch’s, though he has written another with the same protagonist (A Beautiful Blue Death). Finch himself is a graduate of Oxford and he writes of the school’s traditions and the area it encompasses so skillfully and passionately that I feel that I was there. The mystery is intriguing: two missing students and a dead body along with some puzzling clues, and it kept me guessing until the (surprising) ending. Finch does a nice job developing his characters, with subplots running throughout the book in addition to the mystery.

I enjoyed this book so much, as did my husband, that I am going to look up his other novel. I hope that these are the first of many books to come from Finch!

I give this book 4 Stars.