Charles Finch

Charles Finch (born 1980) is an American author and literary critic. He has written a series of mystery novels set in Victorian era England, as well as literary fiction and numerous essays and book reviews.

Life and career

Finch was born in New York City the son of the art critic Charlie Finch. He graduated from Phillips Academy and Yale University, where he majored in English and History. He also holds a master's degree in Renaissance English Literature from Merton College, Oxford. He is the grandson of American artist and writer Anne Truitt.

His first published novel, A Beautiful Blue Death, introduced gentleman sleuth Charles Lenox. The book was named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2007 and was nominated for the Agatha Award for best new mystery of 2007. The Fleet Street Murders came out in 2009 and was nominated for the Nero Award. The Woman in the Water, released in 2018, is a prequel presenting the beginning of Lenox’s career in detection. The series is published by St. Martin's Minotaur, a division of St. Martin's Press.

Finch's first contemporary novel, The Last Enchantments, was published by St. Martin's Press in early 2014.

He has written for The New York Times and Slate and regularly writes essays and criticism for The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune and USA Today. He was a 2014 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, losing to Alexandra Schwartz of The New Yorker. He won the award in 2017.

Finch serves on the curatorial board of the arts colony Ragdale and the board of the National Book Critics Circle.