num_pages: 309
description: On any given day in London, all Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, wants to do is relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. It's a nice life. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist another chance to unravel a mystery, even if it means trudging through the snow to her townhouse next door.One of Jane's former servants, Prudence Smith, is dead -- an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder by a rare and deadly poison. The house where the girl worked is full of suspects and, though Prudence dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by an elusive lack of motive in the girl's death.When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence? Or was it something else entirely different, something that Lenox alone can uncover before the killer strikes again?
language: English
title: A Beautiful Blue Death
titlecomplete: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries, #1)
characters: Herschel (A Beautiful Blue Death), Ellie the cook, Benjamin Disraeli (A Beautiful Blue Death), Hawkins (A Beautiful Blue Death), The Queen (Victoria) (A Beautiful Blue Death), The Duke of Albany (A Beautiful Blue Death), Miss Harrison, John Tilney, Sir Isaac Newton (A Beautiful Blue Death), Hadrian (A Beautiful Blue Death), Inspector Exeter, Sir Edmund Lenox, Lady Helena (A Beautiful Blue Death), Jack Soames, Skaggs (A Beautiful Blue Death), Lord Stearns, Prudence Smith, Colonel Roderick Potts, Isabel Lewes, Claude Barnard, Bartholomew Deck, Lucy the maid, The Hammer Gang, Detective Jenkins, Eustace Bramwell, Two men in an alley, Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (A Beautiful Blue Death), Sir Robert Peel (A Beautiful Blue Death), Willie Jensen, Graham (A Beautiful Blue Death), Lord Cabot, Charles Lenox, Mr. Kerr, George Barnard, Lady Jane Grey (A Beautiful Blue Death), Thomas McConnell, Philip V of Spain (A Beautiful Blue Death), Morgan Waring, Fermat (A Beautiful Blue Death), Mr. Kirk (A Beautiful Blue Death), Newton Duff, Casanova (A Beautiful Blue Death), James (A Beautiful Blue Death), The Duke of Wellington (A Beautiful Blue Death), Toto (A Beautiful Blue Death)
genres: Historical, Fiction, Victorian, Cozy Mystery, Historical Mystery, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature, Mystery, Mystery Thriller
ratings_count: 15971
places: London, England
series: Charles Lenox Mysteries
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Agatha Award
category: Best First Novel
publisher: Minotaur Books