A review by khammer0711
A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

2.0

This book had a Sherlock meets Clue vibe to it. You have Charles Lennox, amateur sleuth, aka Sherlock, and his band of merry men set about solving the mysterious death of Prudence Smith, a servant. The members of the house were all conveniently in the drawing-room together. Classic Clue case of whodunit. No one seems to remember anything. You have wax drops on the floor but a brand new candle. A bottle of poison on the desk but a different kind than that that killed the girl. Open windows, crates of gold, and mysterious characters all around. But following along with all of this was a sheer struggle. A lot of information that was not relevant to the case was thrown in and went on for pages and pages, often causing me to get lost in the storyline of what was actually part of the murder case. A lot of historical facts were thrown in about random items and studies as well as random snippets where Finch would suddenly jump years ahead for no apparent reason and then backtrack to the scene at hand. Finch's writing is full of beautiful vocabulary, don't get me wrong, but he tries to be too clever. Following the end rationale for who committed the crime and why was excruciating! I was only intrigued to see out the end for a short period of time, never very suspenseful or had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Overall, there was just too much "other" filling up the pages.

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