The September Society

 by Charles Finch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This mystery begins in India with some murders that are cold, calculated and cruel in that there appears to be no motive for them. The story slips to to Oxford, England about two decades later in 1866 when an anxious, perhaps overly doting mother comes to thirty-something amateur detective Charles Lenox because her son, George Payson who was studying at Lincoln College, part of Oxford University, has mysteriously disappeared.

Lenox takes the case and realizes that he welcomes a nostalgic trip to revisit his own college days at that same University.

Lincoln College

He arrives at the young man's empty room and immediately sees a pattern that suggests a message has been left. There is an murdered animal, a sip of paper with a code, various red artifacts scattered on the floor in a seemingly random pattern  and a mysterious calling card of an unknown entity 'The September Society".


The hunt has just begun when a body identified as Payson's and the police become involved and for reasons unclear to me immediately welcome Lenox as part of the team. Really! The next problem is that Payson's best friend has disappeared as well also leaving the calling card of the September Society.

One of the most interesting part of the book is the inclusion of the University of Oxford's history. Oxford is made up of about twenty constituent colleges each a small mini university with it's own library, chapel, dining hall, professors and buildings. These different colleges were founded at different times. Lincoln College was founded by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1427.

John Wesley

A notable graduate was John Wesley, the religious reformer. A joke had been made about Wesley when he was there in  the 1720's and he was called a Methodist because of his dull methodical ways.


 Oxford itself was the brainchild of a cleric who had a few students that met in some small room looking for intellectual stimulation. This was in 1090 AD and before another century died away Oxford was recognised as the greatest institution of higher education in the world. By the 1400's Oxford began to have the look and feel of a great university.


The story moves along at a moderate pace and aside from Lenox's obsession with his unrequited love for Lady Jane who he has known since childhood, the plotting is intricate and the tale is entertaining. I enjoyed it.