The Hidden City is the 12th Charles Lenox historical mystery by Charles Finch. Released 4th Nov 2025 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 288 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out from the same publisher in 4th quarter 2026. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
This is a very well written, civilized, erudite, and intelligent series with a refined and practical protagonist. This installment follows Charles as he recovers from a stabbing during his last case in America, as well as hosting a cousin (more of a niece and her companion) recently bereaved from India, more adventures for Lady Jane (who's supporting the suffragist movement), and a disturbing/mysterious letter from an old household servant with a cold case mystery to investigate.
The characters are beautifully rendered, the dialogue is never clunky or distracting, and the clues and mystery progression follow the accepted rules of engagement. The resolution and denouement were satisfying and very well done. I'm enjoying the development of Lenox very much after his marriage and fatherhood - it adds an agreeable and believable fullness and depth to his character. Although it's the 12th book in the series, it works well as a standalone (with the codicil that some of the background and development spoil the earlier books in some minor details).
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours 8 minutes and is very capably read by series narrator James Langton. He has a well modulated professionally trained voice and does a wonderful job with a wide variety of regional accents, and characters across a spectrum of ages and both sexes. His RP upper class accent is happily a wonder to behold and not at all grating or nasal (yay).
I recommend the series to fans of the genre. Four stars.12 books in, it would make a good choice for a long binge/buddy read as well as for public or home library acquisition.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
No comments:
Post a Comment