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Nov 30, 2016jenniferrabbit rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Absolutely splendid book, intelligent and witty, with passages that give us incidental historical information, for instance, why the US drives on the left and England drives on the right. (Which has to do with the size and the age of the countries.) This is the eleventh in the Charles Lenox mystery series, set in early to mid 19th century England. Charles is contacted by a childhood friend who has been told he's received a large inheritance but must return to England to claim it. Leigh finds this a bit odd, and although they have not kept in touch he knows Charles, once a member of Parliament, is now a successful private detective. In school Charles and Leigh tried to discover the Mysterious Benefactor responsible for paying Leigh's tuition, and wonders if this can be connected. It turns out that Leigh has become famous in the scientific world and when he returns to England is feted by the Royal Society; we learn interesting things about the accelerating state of 19th century science as backstory to this novel . Murder, assault, espionage, betrayal and a bit of romance make The Inheritance an excellent, engaging read. Spoiler alert: incidentally to the main plot line, they do track down the MB and I was, in the vocabulary of the times, gobsmacked.