July 7, 2008 at 1:52 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
84. Callander Square by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 256 p.
It’s been so long since I read this that my impressions have mostly faded, but I do remember enjoying it a fair bit. Callander Square is the second in Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, which by now runs to over two dozen books. In the first book, The Cater Street Hangman, Charlotte was a middle-class, young living with her parents in Victorian London. By the end of that book, Charlotte has had many of her illusions about her feelings and her world shattered, and has managed to fall in love with the decidedly unsuitable Inspector Pitt. In this next book, Charlotte and Pitt have already been married for some time, which is a shame, since I would have liked to witness Charlotte’s family’s reactions to her marriage, as well as Thomas and Charlotte’s marriage and early days living together. Oh, well–maybe Anne Perry will go back and write that book someday.
In Callander Square, the bodies of two newborns are found buried in the park in the middle of an upscale London square, and it’s Pitt’s job to investigate. It’s quite possible that there has been no foul play, and that they babies were merely stillborn or died soon after birth, and that their mother, likely an unmarried woman, buried them there to avoid disgrace or dismissal. The babies’ mother may be a servant, but there is a possibility that she belongs to one of the wealthy, upper-class families living in the square. Charlotte and her sister Emily become involved, ferreting out gossip to help Pitt in his investigation.
Except for Perry’s usual abrupt ending, I enjoyed this book and found it a satisfying blend of mystery and historical fiction. Anne Perry really does her research into the period, and it shows; none of the characters’ behaviour seems anachronistic, and their thoughts, morals, and preoccupations are decidedly Victorian. It’s an author of rare skill who can write period characters who come to life and are true to their time, and yet are distinct individuals, each with his or her own beliefs and opinions.
There’s no need to read Anne Perry’s novels in order, since although there’s character development throughout the series, the books stand alone perfectly well. This book is a slight exception, since it’s the first of three which all feature prominently a family of recurring characters, the Balantynes, and the later books contain spoilers for the earlier. Callander Square, Death in the Devil’s Acre, and Bedford Square should not be read out of that order.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pages read: 24,613
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Anne Perry, General Balantyne, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 27, 2008 at 2:27 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
79. Seven Dials by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 345 p.
When a prominent politician’s mistress is arrested for murder, and it seems the politician himself is in some way involved, Victor Narraway, head of Special Branch, sends Thomas Pitt o investigate. Ayesha Zakhari, an Egyptian citizen, is accused of having murdered a low-level diplomat who was shot dead in her back garden at 3 a.m. Although she denies the charge, the fact that she was caught red-handed trying to move the body—shot with her gun—seems to confirm her guilt beyond any doubt. Her lover, Saville Ryerson, denies any possibility of her guilt, but he’s hardly an unbiased witness.
I found it strange that all the characters (including Pitt) seemed utterly convinced of Zakhari’s guilt, since to me it seemed quite obvious that the murder might be a political plot, which didn’t occur to Pitt until the second half of the book. Although the solution turned out not to be so straightforward, it was very odd that no one even considered the possibility, even as Pitt was assigned to the case to limit its political repercussions. And especially since everyone agreed, on multiple occasions, that the only motive Zakhari had for the murder was inadequate to the point of absurdity.
I was also annoyed that no one, including Pitt, interviewed Ayesha Zakhari after she was arrested. Pitt was supposedly investigating the case, but although he asked Ryerson some half-hearted questions, he didn’t make any attempt to question the prime suspect! One could assume that, knowing that Zakhari had refused to speak to the police, Pitt concluded that there was no reason to even try to get her to talk to him, but we never actually see him make that decision. He investigates her, a tries to find out who she is from other people, but it never seems to occur to him that he could easily find out what she’s like by meeting her and judging her for himself.
I point out these two things (the automatic assumption of Zakhari’s guilt and the failure to interview her), not because they’re particularly important or affected my enjoyment of the book in any significant way, but because they’re just so odd, especially given Perry’s usually tight and polished plots.
This book was amazing, though; definitely one of Perry’s best. I was ecstatic to find that it contained no Inner Circle politics at all, so I could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the mystery and Perry’s excellent-as-usual historical writing. The revelations about Narraway felt very right, and allowed Pitt to build some personal trust in him, something I wasn’t sure would ever happen.
Gracie and Tellman were incredibly cute, as usual, and I was glad to see their relationship progress. Tellman in particular has developed a lot as a character over the series; in that respect, he actually reminds me of William Monk, the protagonist of Perry’s other long-running series of Victorian mysteries.
The mystery in Seven Dials was a particularly good one, and seeing Pitt visit Egypt in the course of the investigation was icing on the cake!
Pages read: 23,249
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 27, 2008 at 1:59 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
78. Southampton Row by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 336 p.
Just like Traitor’s Gate, Southampton Row features Thomas Pitt against the might of the Inner Circle, a secret society with vast influence on Victorian politics. Having been transferred against his will from his post as Superintendent of Bow Street Station to a position with Special Branch, Pitt finds himself working against his nemesis, Sir Charles Voisey, who is standing for parliament. His opposition is the untried Aubrey Serracold, a friend of Pitt’s brother-in-law, Liberal MP Jack Radley.
Serracold’s idealist, left-leaning politics might be enough to damn him, even in his traditionally Liberal riding, but a worse obstacle emerges when his wife Rose becomes involved in a murder investigation.
I spent most of the first part of this book bored by Inner Circle conspiracies, and wishing that the story would focus on a real mystery. Even though I ended up enjoying the mystery, I really wish the Inner Circle had been left out of this book (and that it would be left out of subsequent books!) I was happy to see that the solving of two crimes once again allowed resolution of at least some of the plot threads!
Pages read: 22,904
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 27, 2008 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
77. Traitors Gate by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 411 p.
I can hardly believe I’m still posting reviews from books I read a couple of weeks ago. I was away, without internet access, when I read them, and when I got back, my home internet was down! But now it’s fixed, yay.
This is yet another of Anne Perry’s fabulous historical mysteries featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. It’s also one of the first of the series in which Pitt faces off against a secret society called the Inner Circle. I have no idea whether there’s any historical model for the society, but Perry makes its existence and activities fairly plausible, which isn’t easy to do.
If you’ve read some of the series, you probably know that Pitt grew up the son of a gamekeeper, and that when his father was wrongly convicted of poaching, his employer, Sir Arthur Desmond, allowed Pitt and his mother to stay on at the estate, and educated Pitt with his own son, Matthew. Despite his gratitude and love for Sir Arthur, Pitt has not seen any of the family since he was eighteen, so it’s a double blow when Matthew comes with the news that his father is dead. Most people assume that Sir Arthur’s death was an accident or even suicide, but Matthew is convinced that he was murdered by the Inner Circle, and wants Pitt’s help in clearing his father’s name.
Matthew also has another case to lay before his old friend: information from the Colonial Office is being leaked to the Germans, and Britain’s position in Africa is at risk.
As usual, Perry’s historical writing is excellent. Much of the case turns on the politics of British colonialism in Africa. The characters fight for their beliefs as if the outcome were still undecided—Perry doesn’t make the mistake of having all the good people espouse modern-day opinions, or having all the villains be rabid imperialists. Their positions on the issue seem to spring naturally from the personalities and from what was known about Africa at the time. Anne Perry’s characters aren’t just real people, they’re real Victorians. The tragedy, of course, is that we all known what happened in Africa, with Cecil Rhodes and the Afrikaners and King Leopold. We know what’s coming, even though the characters don’t.
I was a little reluctant to read this book, because I was afraid of the secret society element. It seemed such a departure from her earlier works, but this novel was as good as any of her books, and better than most.
I think I’ve mentioned before that for me, one of the drawbacks of Anne Perry’s novels is that she doesn’t believe in dénouement, cutting off most of her stories right after a dramatic arrest. It always feels abrupt to me, and most of the time I’m left wondering what the characters think, or what happens to them afterwards. The ending of Traitors Gate is better than usual because it actually has two climaxes, so we get to seem some of the aftermath of the first climax, at least.
Traitors Gate is an unexpectedly fabulous addition to the Pitt series!
Pages read: 22,568
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 22, 2008 at 9:52 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
75. Half Moon Street by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 311 p.
This is, hands down, one of the very best mystery novels I’ve ever read. I’ve complained before about having put together important pieces of the puzzle before the characters in other Anne Perry novels, but that wasn’t a problem in this book. I was hooked from the beginning, and I didn’t put it down until the end.
Superintendent Thomas Pitt of Bow Street Station investigates some of the most sensitive crimes in Victorian London. When a man’s body, dressed in a green gown and laid out in a boat in a suggestive pose, is found floating down the Thames, Pitt is the natural person to handle the investigation.
Meanwhile, Pitt’s mother-in-law, Caroline, is finding that marriage to a Jewish actor seventeen years her junior has even more difficulties than she anticipated, while her first husband’s mother, Mariah Ellison, finds her peace threatened by a relative from America.
I didn’t see the ending coming at all, even though it arose naturally from everything that came before it. I adored the interaction between Caroline and Mariah, and the revelations about Mariah’s past.
Anne Perry investigates real moral issues in her fiction, without applying today’s values. She never writes as though the outcome were already decided, even when it is, from our point of view. She never patronizes her characters, and that’s part of what makes her historical writing so effective and believable.
Pages read: 21,771
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 22, 2008 at 8:26 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
74. Bedford Square by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 327 p.
The dead body of an unknown man is found in the doorway of a house in Bedford Square, and Superintendent Thomas Pitt is called in. The house belongs to General Balantyne, an old friend of Pitt’s wife Charlotte. The only connection between the General and the body is an expensive snuffbox found in the dead man’s pocket. Pitt soon discovers that a terrifying blackmail operation is somehow involved.
I loved this book, even though it had a few drawbacks. Once again, something I found obvious stumped the characters for far too long. The connection between the blackmail victims was mentioned an incredible number of times before anyone caught on, which was quite frustrating. Some authors keep their characters from putting the pieces together because they don’t share their knowledge; Perry thankfully avoided that, but instead they were all blind to the obvious.
Once again, I found that the ongoing characters were my favourite thing about the book. True world-building is rare in mystery novels, since they’re usually firmly based in reality, but Anne Perry brings the Victorian era to life in a way I’ve rarely seen in any historical novel.
As always, the case was engaging and complex, and Perry made me really care about the solution. She also did her usual excellent job of revealing the seamier side of Victorian London, without seeming preachy, or self-congratulatory about how far (we think) our society has come since then.
The Anne Perry novels I’ve read lately (and there are others still to be reviewed) have confirmed for me that she’s a truly great mystery author as well as an inspired historical writer.
Pages read: 21,460
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, General Balantyne, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
May 21, 2008 at 10:41 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
73. Brunswick Gardens by Anne Perry (Historical mystery) 389 p.
When a young woman with objectionable opinions about God and Darwin dies in the house of a prominent clergyman, and the man himself is the most likely suspect, it’s a case that needs sensitive handling, so Superintendent Thomas Pitt of Bow Street Station is called in. He’s surprised to find Dominic Corde, his wife’s brother-in-law, staying in the house—and even more surprised that Dominic is now a clergyman himself. As Pitt investigates the case, he finds out a great deal about everyone living in the house, but nothing he discovers seems to provide a motive for the murder.
I guessed the culprit and the motive about halfway through the book, but it almost didn’t matter, because the story was so absorbing. It was a little annoying that none of the characters figured it out earlier, especially Charlotte Pitt, because she had all the clues that reader did.
Anyway, I loved Brunswick Gardens in spite of that. Anne Perry’s writing is superb. Every character, even the most minor, has a personality. I love the recurring characters, and how she brings characters like Dominic back from earlier books. The series is very long-running, but old events are recapped by the characters, not just to bring new readers up to date, but because the things that have happened earlier in the series are a part of them, their lives and emotions. The books are about crimes, but they’re also about the Pitts and their family and friends, and that’s what makes the books so special.
I was happy to see Tellman’s feelings for Gracie continue, and I liked Cornwallis’s budding relationship with Isadora Underhill. Anne Perry writes excellent mysteries, but I’d read her books just to find out what happens to her characters!
Pages read: 21,133
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, A ~ Z Reading Challenge, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 5:45 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
2. Cardington Crescent by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 297 p.
Lady Emily Ashworth is staying with her husband’s uncle and having a miserable time of it. Her husband George, whom she married partly for his money and social position but also genuinely cares for, is giving every proof that he is indulging in an affair with another woman—his own cousin’s wife.
After days of strain, Emily believes that she has achieved a reconciliation with George. The next morning he’s found dead, and his family is only too happy to blame Emily for the crime. Emily’s brother-in-law, Inspector Thomas Pitt, is called in, but without evidence against anyone else, it seems only a matter of time before Emily must be arrested for her husband’s murder.
Anne Perry certainly doesn’t shrink from some of the more unsavoury aspects of Victorian society. The characters’ view of adultery as something dreadfully sinful and scandalous only when a woman does it is true to the period, though infuriating. I liked the book no better, but also no worse, than any of the others in the series so far.
Books read: 2
Pages read: 584
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
1. The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 287 p.
Another Anne Perry novel, this time the first in the Thomas Pitt series. I enjoyed it well enough, but not to the point of saying much I didn’t say about Pentecost Alley or Ashworth Hall.
I will mention that if you’re interested in the series, this is a good place to start. One of the things I like best, which can be hard to find in a historical mystery series, is character development over the course of the series. Too many keep their characters’ personalities and situations static over many books. Anne Perry doesn’t, so it’s not a bad idea to start the series at the beginning (although it’s not at all necessary.)
When the Ellisons’ maid is found strangled, it’s only the latest in a series of murders that have plagued the solid, respectable neighbourhood around Cater Street in Victorian London. Inspector Thomas Pitt is sent to investigate the case, and in the process makes the acquaintance of Charlotte Ellison, one of the unmarried daughters of the house.
Books read: 1
Pages read: 287
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 12:39 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
126. Ashworth Hall by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 384 p.
Another Thomas Pitt novel; I continue to enjoy this series quite a bit. Pitt is called on to provide security for a well-respected man from the Government, who is to be a negotiator at a conference on the Irish Problem. The negotiations, to concern Home Rule for Ireland, are to be held at Ashworth Hall, owned by none other than Pitt sister-in-law, Emily.
When Greville is found dead in his bath, Pitt’s job changes from security to investigation, as Emily’s husband Jack takes Greville’s place in the negotiations. Fearing for Pitt’s career and Jack’s life, Emily and her sister Charlotte do their utmost to find and expose the killer.
I liked the plot, I liked the characters, and the Victorian setting was fun. All in all, a good way to pass a few lazy hours.
Books read: 126
Pages read: 37,615
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
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