This mystery kept me reading all the way to the end. It started with a fast-paced chase and even ended with action. It's a historical mystery set in 19th century London but travels to France and Ireland and back. There are multiple plots between Charlotte Pitt, her husband Thomas Pitt, and Victor...
Like all of the William Monk books, this was gripping from start to finish (except for the repetitious mental torment scenes that have always been the downside of Perry's novels for me). Perry writes atmosphere so well, the crimes are hideous, and Monk and Hester continue to be some of my favouri...
Ok, so it seems that I have made a mistake. It looks like "Acceptable Loss" is a continuation of "Execution Dock", which I have not read. What is more, "Acceptable Loss" is my first book ever by Anne Perry. Will there be more? A few weeks ago when I started I would have said: "never again"... It ...
Anne Perry is know for tackling some of the vilest, darkest subjects that occurred behind closed doors, out in the streets, and in the halls of government of Victorian London. This book was no exception. It actually is a bit different from the last few that Pitt and the others have investigated...
Led on by Anne Perry’s latest Christmas novelette, which was a lot less verbiose and repetitive and just plain silly about clues and procedures than the previous one, I did read “A Christmas Hope.” Then, because I have always liked her main series characters, particularly the women, Charlotte Pit...
I love historical fiction, especially when there is real history behind it. This story is not based on a particular event, as far as I know, but the knowledge I gained reading 1848 helped me to understand the wild revolutionary ideas that were loose all over Europe in the period after those revo...
As always, I love the interaction and blending of social mores and the politics of the times. In this case, so much was happening with the spread of the socialist movement which finally reached England. The first part of the book deals with Monk until Charlotte gets involved and goes off with ...
I find the whole thing rather depressing, no matter how well written. Enough with the sexual depravity already. I was dismayed to find the next in the series was just a continuation of the storyline in this book. I certainly don't deny it existed, but surely there is other interesting subject ...
William and Hester Monk investigate a preacher who averts funds from his congregation and throws many into dire poverty. As his trial unfolds, Judge Oliver Rathbone presides over the case. The Judge decides to play a wild card in the form of an inflammatory picture to save the day. He is jaile...
London, England. 1865.William and Hester Monk's dear friend the brilliant lawyer Sir Oliver Rathbone is in trouble. His wife, the former Margaret Ballinger has left him and is furious with him for not having properly defending her father the late Arthur Ballinger.Sir Oliver has been elevated to t...
I purchased this book hoping to read about a fresh, lush, complex Constantinople through the eyes of a woman clothed in layers of secrecy. I did not find it: the narrative was weak, jumping over all the delicious little "difficult" pieces of the main character's journey to emphasize discussions b...
Perry is a skilled storyteller masterfully weaving historical facts and cultural tradition into very readiable text. As the contributing sub-plots build. the reader is moved to think that the politics of greed and human behavior has not altered much since 1281. Found myself routing for the re...
I think the concept was interesting, without giving too much away. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. I enjoyed reading it but I felt like the main character wasn't really the main character. So I wasn't really able to connect to the person who was supposed to be holding the story ...
Notes to self (ran out of space in notes space): what the hell is up with Margaret? seems very superior and holier than thou; why is she still helping the clinic?Claudine: match-seller; showdown with husbandSqueaky: becoming more ethical and attached to clinic peopleSutton: Love him and the ...
This is a small book and it only took me a day really to read it although I started it last night. I ended today around noon. The story is set in the year 1895 in Ireland. Although the story was interesting in itself, it ended leaving many questions unanswered. The main character, who had travell...
Book #6 in Anne Perry's Victorian Christmas mysteries. It is 1868, and Emily Radley is called away from the comforts of Christmas in London with her family, to attend her dying Aunt Susannah who lives in Connemara, on Ireland's west coast. Emily is reluctant to leave home, but with her husband's ...
This was different from the previous novels and I really liked it. Charlotte Pitt's sister, Emily, goes to Ireland to stay with their dying aunt and help solve the riddle of an old murder so the aunt can die in peace. But history seems to be repeating itself as a similar situation unfolds. Emi...
This book is a clever riff on the "Dracula" plot by Bram Stoker, as well as an engaging murder mystery set in an isolated mansion, cut off by a snowstorm, amidst a theatrical company and a wealthy family. It is also centred on the sympathetic and engaging character of Caroline Fielding, the moth...
In retrospect maybe reading this book in August wasn't the best idea, but in my defense, I had just just bought my first three Christmas presents and my thoughts were on the holidays. But, in truth, I think that my reaction to the book would have been the same if I had read it on Christmas Eve j...
As usual, Perry has produced a good, quick reading mystery, involving one of my favorite characters, Victor Narraway, as a young, newly posted lieutenant to Cawnpore. We have a slight introduction to frontier life in India and some aspects of military posting there. I gave this book 4 stars as ...
A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry is the tenth of her Christmas mystery novellas. All are set in the mid-1800s at the Christmas season, and enhance the “back stories” of characters from her Thomas & Charlotte Pitt or William Monk Victorian mystery series.It’s December 1857 in Cawnpore, India wher...
Perry's quick, simple and pleasant Christmas book for 2013 is a straightforward story featuring one of the characters in the Monk series. Protagonist Claudine volunteers in the clinic for street women. In this book she is in her privileged life at a holiday party when she witnesses a murder. The ...
Bon, soyons clairs, ce n'est pas le meilleur Anne Perry que j'ai lu. Comme toujours pour ses "spécial Noel", le héros du livre est un personnage secondaire de l'une de ses deux séries. Cette fois c'est l'ennemi intime de Monk qui s'y colle. Le début est très prometteur, notamment parce qu'il expl...
Another one of the best entries in this series--although the Cockney dialect may take a while for your mind's ear to "hear," the story is charming. It features Gracie Phelps from one of Perry's mystery series and the mysterious Mr. Balthasar, whom I'd like to read more about! The book also made m...
Claudine Burroughs lives an empty life. She is like a strangr to her openly ambitious husband and she dreads the society parties, balls, and teas of her wealthy, socially prominent friends. The only joy she has is in her volunteer work at a women's clinic for poor women which her husband sees a...
An interesting plot about an unlikely band of strangers trying to find a prodigal son lost in the underworld of Victorian London. But it has very little to do with Christmas, aside from the dates of their search. And the tale itself is repetitive, dull and confusing, with an unfortunate focus o...
I love Anne Perry books, but this one felt disjointed. It's the second holiday book I've read with Rathbone as the lead character.It's a short book and I don't know if that's why it didn't feel developed? I couldn't get a fully developed mental picture while reading it, which I usually can.Most o...
Eighth in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series set in late 19th century London.The StoryThe Eustace March is having a house party and part of its intention is to vet Jack Radley and arrange his marriage to Tassie. For some reason, George, Emily, and Aunt Vespasia are part of the party; Ve...
Death in the Devil’s Acre is the seventh book in Anne Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt historical mystery series is an intoxicating thriller from start to finish with mesmerizing characters.A doctor of good standing and impeccable character is found slashed to death in the Devil’s Acre, one of V...
After reading more than 1700 pages through the last two volumes, it was time to get away from Safehold, which must be thousands of years in the future, and the next-read mystery from the last century wasn’t enough, so I dipped into this Victorian mystery, scrounged from a hospital waiting room, a...
It is a given that I am a fan of Anne Perry. That said, suffice it to say, this installment of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series did not disappoint. Pitt has been called in to covertly look into the activities of a very popular political candidate named Charles Voisey who belongs to a secret...
Ce livre fait partie de la saga « Charlotte et Thomas Pitt » et c’en est même le 19ème opus ! Autant vous le dire tout de suite, c’est avec ce livre que j’ai découvert l’auteur et la saga et le fait de ne pas connaître l’historique des différentes enquêtes menées par le couple ne m’a pas manqué.P...
Patron Review:This mystery is one of a series of Anne Perry's who-dunnits that features the Scotland Yard detective, Thomas Pitt, and his wife Charlotte.l Her mysteries are really interesting because they are, at the same time, historical novels that recreate life in late 19th and early 20th cen...
I chose this book in my local library, partly because it was short(!) and partly because I had never read anything by Anne Perry. I did not have particularly high hopes for the book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The central characters are Dominc Corde and his wife, Clarice. Dominic is chosen b...
Anne Perry uses the cultural mores of the 18th century as the backdrop for her books, and in The Twisted Root the reader is delivered into a time when cultural taboos leave a woman ready to die rather than tell what she knows about three murders that she has been charged with committing. Even tho...
Slaves of Obsession is a frustrating book. Clearly a murder mystery (as are all in this series), the murderer proves to be the most likely suspect for me but not the villain I wanted it to be. To be sure, there is a certain poetic justice which occurs with regard to the one I consider a villain, ...
Attention, pour celles et ceux qui n’auraient pas encore lu (ou terminé) L’Étrangleur de Cater Street, cette chronique contient des spoilers.Après avoir trouvé l’Étrangleur de Cater Street, Charlotte et Thomas sont de nouveau confrontés à la noirceur humaine : des nourrissons ont été enterrés dan...
Bluegate Fields go a bit deeper in the Victorian underworld than most of Charlotte and Pitt's stories. Unlike the previous story where Charlotte and her family took center stage, in this one it is Pitt, his boss and his young colleague who are the primary investigators. Charlotte is still a much ...
http://yearningtoread.blogspot.com/The case is dangerous: the murder of a young woman of society, stabbed to death in her own room and a few trinkets stolen. Inspector William Monk takes on the case, still lacking 95% of his memory but determined to keep this loss a secret and prove himself wor...
If you are an Anne Perry fan, then probably you'll enjoy this series, since the things that bugged me about it the most were characteristic of one of her other books (from the series with a husband and wife, IIRC). I know there are many Anne Perry fans out there, so maybe it is just me.However, ...
I think Anne Perry is one of the finest authors of historical mysteries I have ever read. She has such a fine sense of atmosphere and really delves into the character's lives, personalities and feelings and places them in the most extraordinary situations where every character is tested almost be...
A decent read, although if you picked this up as your first Anne Perry/Thomas Pitt book, like me, you might find yourself rather confused. There are numerous references thrown in to events in previous novels, and most of the main characters had a lot of history together that is only vaguely hinte...
Ninth in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series based in late 19th century London.The StoryThomas has been ordered to look back into a three-year-old murder of a Foreign Office dignitary that was never solved. It seems the powers-that-be are concerned about his widow's marrying a fellow dig...
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Les Anges des Ténèbres? "Ceci est le troisième tome de la saga des Reavley d'Anne Perry après "Avant la Tourmente" et "Le Temps de Armes".Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire... "Joseph est blessé dans le no man's land alors q...
For whatever reason, this story seems disjointed. The first big scene took forever to tie in with the rest of the plot and I'm still not sure it was necessary. The big reveal did not necessarily need Julia and her sister Marianne. The courtroom scenes are tedious and overly drawn out. I suspe...
I have been “hooked” on Anne Perry novels for a good while now. There are a number of reasons for this addiction. One reason I enjoy these novels as much as I do, is that AP is, to my way of thinking, a master at creating characters with depth to their personalities. This installment in the Willi...
Book three in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series finds Charlotte's sister, Emily, in the middle of yet another murder. The haughty aristocrats find themselves ashamed to be caught in the middle of a murder and afraid that there is a murderer among them. Thomas works diligently as an inv...
16th in the series. As is often the case, there is quite a dramatic crescendo at the ending of this installment, and several plot turns and twists to sustain curiosity. As I enjoy so much consistently in the series, we get plenty of details of social behavior, etiquette, and accepted rules of i...
Done. Done. Complete. Finished. Fini. Fin. Adios. Au Revoir. Auf Wiedersehen Adios. Ba-Bye. Toodles. Going. Going. Gone!!Omg I couldn't wait to finish this thing! Let me be completely frank here.. this is a prime example of extreme wordiness getting in the way of what could have possibly been a g...
Years ago I read every Thomas and Charlotte Pitt book when it came out. Having just read the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mysteries, I decided to revisit the Pitts in the later Victorian period. They are as charming as ever although Thomas has now become the Superintendent of the police department...
A Christmas Visitor, 2nd book in Anne Perry's Christmas mystery series, is set in mid-December 1850 on an estate near Penrith in the Lake District of England. The Dreghorn siblings will be arriving from around the globe (Palestine, Africa, America) for a Christmas celebration. Henry Rathbone rece...
A Christmas Guest is the third book in Anne Perry's Christmas mystery series. Unlike the previous two stories in the series, which were set in mid-19th century, this story is set in Victorian England in the same timeframe as the Thomas Pitt mystery series. A key theme in this story is snobbery an...
I intentionally picked this up at the library for 2 reasons: I recently discovered Anne Perry's books and have decided she is one of my newfound favorite authors - and the book's subject centered around World War I, an event about which I know very little. It turns out I started with the second b...
No Graves As Yet, the initial volume in Anne Perry’s WWI series, begins with a cricket match. Somehow that is appropriate because this book took me longer to finish than a long, drawn-out cricket match. The pace is slow and leisurely and the handling of the characters is ever so much more persona...
I can't help but feel slightly geeky, giving a 4 star rating to a murder mystery. But Anne Perry is one of the best mystery writer I've ever come across. Her understanding of the Victorian Period - the fashions, the attitudes, the prejudices - is absolutely perfect and it shows in the books.This ...
William Monk is a Thames River Police superintendent on a patrol boat when he notices a young couple standing at a bridge railing, apparently engaged in an intense discussion. The woman waves her arms and places her hands on the man's shoulders. A caress or a push? The man grasps hold of her. To ...
Acabo de terminar el libro y debo decir que estoy muy sorprendida, aunque no del todo satisfecha. La razón puede ser que este es el primer libro que leo de Anne Perry, por lo que no tengo todo el contexto que necesitaba para entender el libro. Aunque sí lo disfruté.Anne Perry es una escritora tal...
This book was more annoying than enjoyable, but funnily enough, I will read another of her books, out of curiosity, to see if the earlier ones were any better written."Funeral in Blue" is a William Monk mystery set in Victorian England. William Monk is a former policeman who is now a private inve...
Fourth in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt historical mystery series set in Victorian England and revolving around an unlikely couple.My TakeTwisty. Perry sure went to a lot of work on this one. It's foot-slogging having to go back over and over again. Dealing with the same people as Pitt continues to...
I've really enjoyed the books I read by Anne Perry and I can't wait to continue reading this series. The fact that there are so many books out only makes me more enthusiastic.Although the summary above mentions Monk as the main detective in this case the truth is that Hester Latterly does most of...
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec La Disparue de Noël? "Voilà quelques temps maintenant que je dévore tout ce que je peux lire de la plume d'Anne Perry. Malheureusement, lorsque je l'ai connue, on ne trouvait déjà plus certains de ses récits de Noël. Quand j'ai trouvé ...
23rd in the series. It was a bit harder for me to get into this one, though the entertainment level picked up when Thomas was sent to Alexandria, Egypt, to do some investigating there, as the Special Branches case he is called in on involves an exotic Egyptian beauty with brains caught removing ...
It's been some years since I read Anne Perry and I'm looking forward to be lifted into Victorian England again. EARLY COMMENTSThe interactions between William Monk and Oliver Rathbone and Hester Latterly reflect Anne Perry's superb ability to communicate the way people can feel about each other a...
Fifth in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt historical mystery series set in late Victorian London and revolving around Detective Inspector Pitt and his busybody of a wife.My TakeThis particular story provides an in-depth look at how the mere accident of losing a trinket can have a profound effect on ev...
The Cater Street Hangman is the first Charlotte & Inspector Pitt novel by Anne Perry. I had read some of the Pitt mysteries as a teenager and thought I might start at the beginning of the series and read them through. I remembered being fascinated by them at the time, but memory isn't always reli...
So I want to start out by saying I read this as an unabridged audiobook. The narrator was Devina Porter – so far she has narrated every Thomas Pitt novel I have listened to and she does a fantastic job. My husband got me into the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series this past year. He loves good myst...
Anne Perry is one of the authors I routinely look for at book sales, and so I read rather old titles such as this one from 1991. I like her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt very much. They are a loving couple who understand each other, and although Pitt is a cop and their income is low, Charlotte is o...
Tenth in the series of Victorian mysteries featuring the investigative strategies and life experiences of Inspector Thomas Pitt and his forthright wife Charlotte. This one explored the suffragette question as it affected various levels of London society in 1888. We get some long speeches on bot...