Ah Mr. Finch, you do spin a good yarn and this one never disappointed.

Author Charles Finch infuses some fresh air into his Charles Lenox Mystery series by shipping his protagonist and Parliamentarian off on the high seas heading off to Egypt to survey the recently dug Suez Canal. Lenox is on a diplomatic errand to meet with khedive Ismail the Magnificent for some glad-handing and to survey the newest wonder of the world. This is a mere smokescreen for the clandestine meeting with Frenchman Sournois in an attempt to avert war between France and England. Oh, but riding the open ocean on Her Majesty's 1858 built corvette, "Lucy", is a thrill made more so with a sordid murder aboard ship. The ship's Captain Martin, well aware of Lenox's former detective career, asks Lenox to investigate the crime. So many suspects within such tight quarters. Does Lenox still have what it takes to identify the culprit before someone else succumbs to the murderer's evil ways?

The story was captivating with all its red herrings. The scene painting was exquisite as one could nearly hear the creaking boards of a ship in full sail. Be forewarned, there's a tremendous amount of nautical jargon around which to wrap one's mind. Yet all of Finch's vast descriptions of well-researched life aboard a British Navy ship are well worth the effort. ( )

So far I've read a few pages. It's not that bad, it's got his brother and a sense of his mission to go and be a diplomat, I'm thinking. What do you all think of this book? I've got it on a book club. Might have to read more, lol. Just so I can say I've been doing my homework which I've assigned self. ( )

In Finch's newest historical mystery, Charles Lenox opens a potentially exciting new chapter of his life. Not only is his wonderful Lady Jane expecting, but he finds out his older brother Edward is involved with British Intelligence. Edward approaches Charles to ask him to take on a special mission. British spies are being assassinated, and Charles must meet with a French intelligence operative in Egypt, all the while on a seemingly diplomatic mission to discuss the recently finished Suez Canal. Charles accepts and finds himself bound for Egypt aboard the Lucy. When one of the ship's Lieutenants is murdered, the Captain of the vessel charges Lenox to investigate and find the murderer.

I had only two problems with this book, one small and the other pretty big. For one, there was a lot of information about sailing, ships, and navy rank thrown at the reader in the beginning. This plus the fact that there were a lot of new characters to memorize made for slow reading. But Finch does put together an interesting set of characters, Charles' assigned steward McEwan being my favorite.

The other problem I had was more serious, and that lay in the plot of the murder mystery. (Spoilers for the killer are ahead, so if you haven't finished the book don't read further.) As it came out, Halifax was murdered the very night Martin told Billings that he'd recommended Halifax as new Captain of the Lucy over Billings. And Martin wouldn't think to bring this up to Lenox as a possible motive? More, the Captain insisted there was no one who bore any kind of grudge against Halifax. This all coming to light later once Billings was unmasked just annoyed me and spoiled the entire plot of the mystery. It was ridiculous.

But I did end up enjoying most of the book. The voyage to Egypt took up so much of the book that I was beginning to fear it would end in a cliffhanger, but without seeming too rushed the plot managed to draw to a close with all plot lines neatly tied up. ( )

Warning: this review contains spoilers about the characters.

****

This is what I would call a "weak three stars". Most of the book I would rate as a 2.5, and then the extra half star is for the fact that I finished the book and won't be striking any of the other books in the series off the TBR just yet.

What made this mostly a 2.5 for me was the fact that I found some of the descriptions excessively florid (e.g. the revelation in Chapter 2 that Jane is pregnant), and was annoyed by Lenox constantly remembering that his wife is pregnant. Just in case the reader has forgotten? As for the mystery, the atmosphere was pretty good but I only vaguely saw how the culprit could have done it, and the motive didn't quite hang together for me, although I could have been not paying attention.

Meanwhile, the whole reason that Lenox is on the ship in the first place, the trip to Port Said, seemed almost like an afterthought once the murderer was revealed. I could very easily have stopped reading there. But I did read through to the end, and it was all right.

I guess I had higher expectations of this book and it fell short of them. I would not necessarily dissuade anyone from reading it -- this was the first book I read in the series (despite it being book 5) and I was able to pick up who all the recurring characters were with no problem. And the nautical terminology and life aboard ship was nicely rendered. It was just a "good" rather than a "great!" mystery. ( )

Charles Lenox boards a ship for Egypt, ostensibly to discuss the Suez Canal with the reigning leader but also to conduct a secret mission assigned by his brother, another Parliament leader. He boards the Lucy and finds himself immediately thrust into the role of detective when one of the ship's Lieutenants is found murdered and the corpse bizarrely dissected. A severe storm and the threat of mutiny get in the way of discovery and Lenox wonders if he will return home to his happy home and his pregnant wife.

At first I was not thrilled with this book because of the location and the absence of favorite characters in earlier books but I soon became more than interested and as the story is revealed, I could see where earlier clues would have led me to the same conclusion had I been sharp enough to see them. I think this is the best book so far...4 1/2 stars. ( )