Is there no literary justice? Two stars for a predictable and unsatisfying mystery. Finch’s thinly veiled red herrings sprinkled throughout cannot distract the reader from the underdeveloped antagonist who somehow vanishes off the pages at story’s end leaving both reader and protagonist detective Sir Charles Lenox befuddled. No literary justice to be sure.

It takes a lot of creativity and talent for an author of a series to keep bringing back his main characters, show them in entirely different situations, allow the characters to grow and develop, yet retain whatever it is that drew you to them in the first place. I’m really impressed that this newest one may be my favorite so far and excited that it looks like the series will continue. I really like that Charles Finch stumped me again—I should have seen it coming but didn’t. Only sad that it ended.