Charlotte and Thomas Pitt

The first book in Perry's bestselling Victorian crime series, bringing together Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison   Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation gradually peels away the proper veneer of the elite world, exposing secrets and desires until suspicion becomes more frightening than truth. Outspoken Charlotte Ellison, struggling to remain within the confining boundaries of Victorian manners, has no trouble expressing herself to the irritating policeman. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to a romantic connection, the socially inappropriate pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again.   Rich with authentic period details, The Cater Street Hangman hooks readers from the moment the sparks first fly between Charlotte and Thomas.

Everyone on Callander Square has something to hide-but someone will kill to keep a secret   When two dead infants are dug up in the Callander Square gardens, the upper-class residents dismiss the burials as the desperate act of a low-born girl and resent the intrusion of Inspector Thomas Pitt into their well-ordered lives. Pitt is not convinced that the case should be so easily dropped. Also intrigued by the mystery, Pitt's well-born wife, Charlotte, pursues her own investigation into places Thomas would never have access-the parlors and inner chambers of the mansions on the fashionable square. With her sister Emily, Lady Ashworth, who lives on Callander Square, she delves into the lives and secrets of the residents. Thomas and Charlotte, now expecting their first child, form the perfect sleuthing couple. Elegant closets soon spill their skeletons exposing long-hidden secrets-secrets that could lead even the most upright aristocrat to kill.   But will Pitt's keen investigative skills and Charlotte's insights into the workings of high-class society solve the mystery in time to save the innocent residents of Callander Square from the murderer among them?

Something deadly lurks in the stifling shadows of stylish Paragon Walk in Victorian London   When innocent Fanny Nash of exclusive Paragon Walk dies in the arms of her exquisite sister-in-law, Jessamyn, Inspector Pitt is assigned to investigate her rape and murder. Every man of Paragon Walk is under suspicion, even Pitt's brother-in-law, Lord George Ashworth, who was the last to have seen her. Could it be the charming, enigmatic Frenchman? Fanny's cruel brother? Wealthy Dilbridge, who hosts wild, decadent parties? As Pitt digs deeper into the mystery, Paragon Walk's aristocratic haughtiness gives way to fear, its calm to hatred.   To keep her sister Emily, Lady Ashworth, company in this difficult time, inquisitive Charlotte once again finds herself in the midst of a deadly mystery. In the drawing rooms of her sister's neighbors, Charlotte engages in witty and sharp-edged conversations that reveal unsavory intrigues and bitter rivalries. On Paragon Walk, Charlotte's probing despite Thomas's warnings may prove fatal.

Bodies that won't stay buried-is it a practical joke? Or murder?   Lord Fitzroy-Hammond of Resurrection Row has been dead and buried three weeks when he turns up sitting atop a hansom cab. Grave robbing, though a crime, isn't Inspector Thomas Pitt's usual fare. But when the macabre joke is repeated, and the man's corpse is found sitting in the family pew the Sunday following his second interment, Pitt begins to wonder if perhaps there's some message in it. The case grows increasingly bizarre as other disinterred bodies appear.   A new mother, Charlotte Pitt only takes a cursory interest in the grave robbing case until she hears Thomas mention the name of her late sister's husband, Dominic Corde, as a possible suspect. As Pitt follows leads into the slums and rookeries, Charlotte, too, is drawn into the politics and horrors of greed and exploitation.   For Pitt and Charlotte, what begins as a mysterious case of musical corpses, becomes a deadly pursuit through the London underworld of pornographic photographers, brothels, and sweatshops.

Things are not what they seem in fashionable Rutland Place, where secrets that are never discussed at tea include murder   When her mother asks her help in finding a lost locket with a compromising picture, neither Charlotte Pitt, nor her mother, has any idea that the locket may be at the center of a bizarre chain of events leading to murder. Arriving at her mother's home at Rutland Place, Charlotte discovers that other residents of the exclusive neighborhood have also suffered similar small thefts. It all appears quite mild as crimes go-a light-fingered servant, perhaps. That is, until Mina Spencer-Brown, a woman known for her prying, is poisoned and dies. Inspector Thomas Pitt quickly surmises that Mina's snooping might have led to her murder, but what secrets had she stumbled upon? And whose?    As Pitt patiently struggles to break down the protective silence of high-born neighbors, Charlotte works behind the closed doors of society's drawing rooms to help unravel a mystery that reveals sordid secrets and the chilling, dark corners of human behavior.

Thomas and Charlotte Pitt must discover the truth of a young gentleman's sordid murder-or an innocent man will hang   The naked body of an aristocratic youth turns up in the sewers beneath Bluegate Fields, one of London's most notorious slums. But Arthur Waybourne had been drowned in his bath, not in the Thames. More shocking still was that the boy had been sexually violated and infected with syphilis before he was murdered. Despite Inspector Thomas Pitt's efforts to fully investigate the crime, the family closes ranks, stonewalling Pitt, leaving him to wonder what they are hiding. All evidence points to Arthur's tutor, Jerome, as the murderer. The courts agree and Jerome is sentenced to hang. Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, don't believe the answer is so simple. But if not Jerome, then who molested and infected the boy?   To learn the truth, Charlotte uses her familiarity with the upper classes to draw aside the curtain of lies, while Pitt defies his superior and the boy's family to follow a trail that leads him into the foulest streets of London through a web of deceit involving male prostitution and pedophilia. In a race against time, Thomas and Charlotte must find the real killer to save Jerome from the hangman's noose.

The Devil is certainly at work in the dark streets of the slums of Victorian London-and Charlotte and Thomas Pitt must stop a killer before he strikes again   A serial killer is loose in the slums of Devil's Acre. The murders are brutal, but it is the killer's grizzly signature that shocks even Inspector Thomas Pitt, no stranger to death and violent crime. The victims are stabbed and sexually mutilated. When Pitt recognizes one of the victims as a blackmailing footman from a case on Callander Square, his investigation takes him from the brothels to the high reaches of Victorian society and into a world where upper-class women descend to depravity to relieve their boredom. Despite Pitt's warnings, his wife, Charlotte, pursues her own investigation. With the help of her sister Emily, Lady Ashworth, Charlotte reenters the elegant drawing rooms of Callander Square to find out more about the former footman who, Pitt discovers, owned an exclusive high-class whorehouse with-what else-exclusive high-class whores.   As Pitt and Charlotte approach the same dangerous conclusion from differing paths, no one is spared-not even Pitt.

When Charlotte Pitt's sister is charged with murder, she and her husband Thomas must work fast to clear her-and find the real killer   As Inspector Thomas Pitt works to resolve the case of a dismembered woman, his womanizing brother-in-law, George March, Lord Ashworth, is poisoned with his morning coffee at the country estate of his cousins. The primary suspect? Charlotte's sister, Emily, the murdered man's wife and Pitt's sister-in-law. Charlotte and Pitt take on the March clan with the help of Great-aunt Vespasia, their formidable relative and a member of the clan, to break through the wall of deceit and silence. When Sybilla March, George's suspected paramour, is found strangled by her hair and Emily is the one who found her, the case would seem hopeless-for anyone but the indomitable Pitts.   Their pursuit of the truth takes them down a path of corruption, depravity, and murder, from the elegant townhouses lining fashionable Cardington Crescent to the horrifying slums of London.

A three-year-old unsolved murder could prove fatal for Thomas Pitt-and his family   When Thomas Pitt is required to reopen an unsolved murder case in exclusive Hanover Close, he doesn't know how dangerous it will be for his family-and himself. Three years before, Robert York, an important member of the British Foreign Office, was murdered. Pitt believes a mysterious woman may hold the key to the York's death, and his suspicion deepens when a York housemaid dies suddenly after a revealing talk with Pitt. Charlotte, meanwhile, goes undercover as a friend's country cousin to snoop around the drawing rooms of Hanover Close.    Disaster hits home when Pitt himself is accused of murdering the woman he'd been seeking and is thrown in prison. Only Charlotte and her recently widowed sister, Emily, Lady Ashworth, stand between Pitt and the gallows. Ignoring the danger, Charlotte advances her charade, diving deeper into the confidences of the York family and their friends, while Emily infiltrates the below-stairs of the York household by masquerading as Veronica York's new ladies maid.   With Pitt in prison and a murderer among the inhabitants of Hanover Close, Charlotte and Emily play a deadly game. It is only a matter of time before the killer beats them at it.

When Members of Parliament are murdered crossing Westminster Bridge, Thomas and Charlotte Pit must sift through the many suspects to find the killer-before he strikes again   In the few minutes it takes to cross Westminster Bridge, Sir Lockwood Hamilton has his throat slit and is tied securely to the lamppost with his evening scarf. The killer then vanishes without being seen. Inspector Thomas Pitt thinks the motive might have been personal . . . or political. When a second Member of Parliament is murdered in the same way, politics appear to be the reason. Soon the suspect list includes anarchists and suffragettes. Public outrage mounts and fear grips London and Parliament after a third lamppost murder.   Deep in his end of the investigation, Pitt must rely on his wife, Charlotte, and Great-aunt Vespasia to explore the drawing rooms of the upper class for clues to the mystery. With burning social issues swirling around them, the three of them must solve the case before another MP falls victim to the Westminster cutthroat.

Resurrection Row: Lord Fitzroy-Hammond has been dead and buried three weeks when his corpse turns up sitting atop a hansom cab. It may be a macabre practical joke-or something far more sinister. Grave robbing isn't Inspector Thomas Pitt's usual fare, but the case grows increasingly bizarre as other disinterred bodies appear. And new mother Charlotte Pitt gets involved when her late sister's husband becomes a suspect. Rutland Place: Charlotte's mother asks her help finding a lost locket that contains a compromising picture-but neither of them expect the missing jewelry to lead to a murder case. When another resident of her mother's exclusive neighborhood, known for her prying, is poisoned, Inspector Pitt steps in to discover what secrets the woman may have stumbled upon. Bluegate Fields: The naked body of an aristocratic youth turns up in the sewers beneath Bluegate Fields, one of London's most notorious slums. But Arthur Waybourne was drowned in his bath, not in the Thames. The evidence seems to condemn his tutor, who is sentenced to hang. But Thomas and Charlotte believe there's a cover-up and race to find the real killer-before an innocent man dangles from the noose.

The Cater Street Hangman: In the series debut, Inspector Thomas Pitt seeks an elusive strangler among upper-class British society, with the help of the outspoken Miss Charlotte Ellison, whose maid fell prey to the killer. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to romantic sparks, the socially mismatched pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again. Callander Square: As her husband investigates the discovery of two dead infants found buried in an elegant square in London, a pregnant Charlotte uses her social status to gain access to the parlors and inner chambers of the fashionable neighborhood. With the help of Charlotte's sister, Emily, Lady Ashworth, who lives on Callander Square, the sleuthing couple attempts to unearth secrets a seemingly upright aristocrat would kill to keep. Paragon Walk: When Charlotte's brother-in-law, Lord George Ashworth, becomes a suspect in an unspeakable crime committed on the posh London street of Paragon Walk, she must balance supporting her sister, Emily, with assisting Thomas in exposing a monster cloaked in gentleman's clothing.

Death in the Devil's Acre: A vicious and depraved serial killer is loose in the slums of Devil's Acre. When Pitt recognizes one of the victims as a blackmailing footman from a case on Callander Square, his investigation reveals a shocking connection between the city's brothels and Victorian high society. Now Charlotte and her sister Emily, Lady Ashworth, must unveil the dirty secrets of the aristocracy. Cardington Crescent: When Thomas Pitt's womanizing brother-in-law is poisoned by his morning coffee, the inspector must exonerate the prime suspect: Lady Ashworth, Charlotte's sister Emily. With the help of Great-Aunt Vespasia, the couple chip away at a wall of deceit and silence to find the real killer, even after Lord Ashworth's suspected paramour is strangled-and found by Emily. Silence in Hanover Close: At the behest of his superior, Pitt reopens a case gone cold. Three years prior, amidst whispered rumors of treason, Robert York, an important member of the British Foreign Office, was murdered in his home in London's exclusive Hanover Close. When a York family housemaid is found dead shortly after Pitt begins his investigation, he is accused and thrown into prison. Now only Charlotte and her recently widowed sister stand between Thomas Pitt and the gallows. Bethlehem Road: When members of Parliament are murdered one-by-one crossing Westminster Bridge, Thomas and Charlotte must sift through a wide range of suspects, including anarchists and suffragettes. As more seats open up in Parliament and fear grips London, the couple wonders: Are the killings political or somehow personal?