The September Society

by Charles Finch

This is the second book in this mystery series about an affluent English man in the late 1800's who is an amateur sleuth.  In this story a friend asks him to investigate the disappearance of her son.  Charles Lenox finds some strange clues in the boy's room at Oxford, a business card with the words "The September Society" written on it, a dead cat with a letter opener in it and a piece of paper with some strange code on it, some dirty boots, a line of tobacco on the floor.  Charles does some preliminary investigating then returns to London.  He receives a telegram saying that the boy's body has been found.  He feels guilty that he did not stay in Oxford, he feels he might have prevented the death if he had.

As the investigation progresses Lenox finds that the September Society is a group founded of Officers who served in India, at a particular time, a very small club indeed.  He later finds out that the boy's father, who died under mysterious circumstances while in India, was an officer in India at the same time as the members of this society.   What is the connection?  Things get really serious and  worrisome when Lenox's next door neighbour receives a threat for him to back off the case.

Lenox decides to try to hide while a meeting of the society is underway and eventually the truth comes out the boy is not really dead, nor is his father (who has been hiding for years as the member of the Society thought they had killed him because he knew and did not support their illegal activities).
The book ends with the crime solved, one friend of the boy has died, and Lenox has finally gathered the nerve to ask the love of his life, his neighbour, to marry him.

This book was a light read but was as entertaining as the first book in the series, great depiction of Victorian England.