Charlotte and Thomas Pitt

The Cater Street Hangman is the first of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries. Set in the Victorian era, it is an elegant and complex mystery full of well-drawn characters and rich period detail. When a maid in the upper class Ellison household is strangled, Inspector Pitt is called in to investigate. He finds a world ruled by strict manners and social customs, where the inhabitants of the Ellison's neighborhood appear to be more outraged by the thought of scandal than they are by murder. Inspector Pitt finds a most unlikely ally in Charlotte, the Ellison's spirited daughter. But as the murders continue, Charlotte and Pitt find themselves drawn together by more than the investigation.

Callander Square is the second of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries. Full of well-drawn and convincing characters, Callander Square offers a finely crafted recreation of Victorian England. The bodies of two newborn babies have been found in a park in the fashionable London neighborhood of Callander Square. While Inspector Thomas Pitt is fighting to get the square's aristocratic residents to speak with him, his pretty, well-born wife Charlotte decides to do some detective work of her own. Soon she is unearthing secrets in every house on the square while Thomas tries to discover what would drive a person to murder.

When a young woman from the upper class neighborhood of Paragon Walk is raped and murdered, Inspector Pitt is sent in on the case. Unable to believe that a killer could live among them, residents refuse to cooperate with the investigation. He soon finds that the polite society of Paragon Walk is nothing more than a mask for something much more sinister.

Fourth in the series of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries, Anne Perry's Resurrection Row explores the dark undercurrents that run through the lives of the idle rich in Victorian England. After a wonderful night at the theatre, Thomas and Charlotte find themselves confronted with a corpse in the driver's seat of a hansom cab. Even more shocking-it is the body of a peer of the realm who had been decently buried the week before. While the doctor insists Lord Fitzroy-Hammond died a natural death, the Pitts find the situation anything but natural. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Inspector Pitt begins his investigation within the proper channels while his intrepid wife Charlotte renews a tie from her past to get inside Lord Fitzroy-Hammond's world. But as they dig their way closer the truth, they find themselves in danger from forces who will do anything to keep it buried.

Anne Perry has achieved widespread fame for her Victorian mystery series, filled with period detail and finely honed suspense. In Rutland Place, a lost locket becomes the key to deadly secrets that lurk behind the opulent facade of one of London's most exclusive neighborhoods.

When the body of a boy is found in the filthy sewers of Bluegate Fields, Inspector Pitt is called to investigate. The boy was clearly upper class, so what was he doing in one of London's most dangerous slums? The boy's parents refuse to answer police queries. What are these proper, prosperous people hiding? With the help of his wife and helpmate, Charlotte, Inspector Pitt intends to find out.

Acclaimed author Anne Perry delivers another installment of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series, which includes the novels Bluegate Fields (H1421) and Callander Square (H1083). Two dead bodies have been discovered, both similarly mutilated. As Inspector Thomas Pitt examines one body, he recognizes the man from a previous case. With the help of his perceptive wife, Charlotte, Thomas intends to solve this gruesome crime.

Charlotte Pitt's sister, Emily, has been accused of murdering her wayward but wealthy husband. Now Charlotte and police inspector Thomas Pitt must breach a formidable uppercrust barrier to prove Emily's innocence. Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries are rich and suspenseful journeys into a world filled with impeccable manners and intrigue.

Inspector Thomas Pitt is asked to reopen a three-year-old murder case which occurred in London's luxurious Hanover Close. With his wellborn wife, Charlotte, to aid him in penetrating the well-known reserve of high society, the inquisitive Pitts discover a shocking and deadly secret. Millions of ardent fans relish Anne Perry's highly atmospheric mysteries, set in Victorian London.

More than 15 million copies of Edgar Award winner Anne Perry's historical mysteries have been sold. In Bethlehem Road, Inspector Pitt and his wife investigate the murder of a Member of Parliament. Before they can begin to piece together what happened to Sir Lockwood Hamilton, one of his colleagues is discovered murdered-on the exact same spot.

The Victorian mystery series starring Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Pitt reaches new heights. When Dr. Stephen Shaw's fancy Highgate Rise home is burned to the ground with his wife inside, the Inspector and his wife must solve a baffling mystery.

The 12th mystery in the beloved Inspector and Charlotte Pitt Victorian mystery series, now a hardcover success. When a moneylender named William Weems is murdered, there is discreet rejoicing among those whose meager earnings he devoured. But the plot thickens when Inspector Pitt finds a list of London's distinguished gentlemen in Weems' office.

When the distinguished Mr. Justice Stafford dies of opium poisoning, his shocking demise resurrects one of the most sensational cases ever to inflame England: the murder five years before of Kingsley Blaine, whose body was found crucified in Farriers Lane. Amid the public hysteria for revenge, the police had arrested a Jewish actor who was soon condemned to hang. Police Inspector Thomas Pitt, investigating Stafford’s death, is drawn into the Farriers Lane murder as well, for it appears that Stafford may have been about to reopen the case. Pitt receives curiously little help from his colleagues on the force, but his wife, Charlotte, gleans from her social engagements startling insights into both cases. And slowly both Thomas and Charlotte begin to reach for the same sinister and deeply dangerous truth.

Not since the bloody deeds of Jack the Ripper have Londoners felt such terror as that aroused by the gruesome beheadings in Hyde Park. And if newly promoted Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt does not quickly apprehend the perpetrator, he is likely to lose his own head, professionally speaking. Yet even with the help of Charlotte Pitts subtle investigation, the sinister violence continues unchecked. And in a shocking turn of events that nearly convinces the pair of sleuths that they have met their match, the case proves to be Pitts toughest ever.

Someone is passing secrets to the Germans.... Britain's strategy in Africa is finding its way to the Kaiser’s government.... As Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt investigates the leak in the Colonial Office, he quietly looks into the tragic death of his childhood mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond. Pitt believes he was murdered, and that the crime is connected with the treachery in the government. He makes little progress...until a second murder reverberates through London. In the small hours of a May morning, a Thames waterman finds the strangled body of an aristocratic society beauty floating near lonely Traitors Gate. Only then do hard-pressed Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, begin to untangle the threads of passion and intrigue, to see clearly the pattern of tragedy and frightening evil that Pitt must deal with...at the risk of his career--and his life.

The ritual murder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley would ordinarily occasion no stir in Victoria's great metropolis. But under the victim's body the police find a Hellfire Club badge inscribed with the name Finlay Fitzjames--a name that instantly draws Superintendent Thomas Pitt into the case. Finlay's father--immensely wealthy, powerful, and dangerous--refuses to consider the possibility that his son has been in Ada McKinley's bed. The implication is clear: Pitt is to arrest someone other than Finlay Fitzjames for Ada's demise. But Thomas Pitt is not a man to be intimidated, and with the help of his quick-witted wife, Charlotte, and her well-connected friends, he stubbornly pursues his investigation--one that twists and turns like London's own ancient streets.... Anne Perry has devised the most intricate mystery of her prolific career in PENTECOST ALLEY, whose brilliant resolution will astonish and satisfy even the most discerning.

With every book she writes, Anne Perry, the supreme enchanter among historical novelists, contributes a mesmerizing new chapter to her magical re-creation of Victorian England. Here, she abandons London's cobblestone streets and exclusive drawing rooms for a great country house, Ashworth Hall, where a fateful secret conference is about to begin. The gathering has the appearance of a smart autumn house party -- stunning womena and powerful men enjoying a few days of leisurely pleasure in a setting of exquisite beauty. In fact, the guests are Irish Protestants and Catholics gathered in a reluctant parley over home rule for Ireland, a problem that has plagued the British Isles since the reign of Elizabeth I. When the meeting's moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, the negotiations seemed doomed. Superintendent Thomas Pitt of Scotland Yard almost despairs as divorce proceedings involving the great Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell and his mistress, Kitty O'Shea, become an open scandal. To make matters worse, it seems the late Greville himself may have had a less than savory personal life. The surviving guests -- six men and five women -- unleash their true feelings, or perhaps only pretend to do so. Their servants follow suit. Unless Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, can root out the truth, simmering passions above and below stairs may again explode in murder, the hopeful home rule movement may collapse, and civil war may destroy Ireland. Never before has Pitt borne such terrible responsibilities, and never has Charlotte been less able to share them.

Like the great Victorian novelists whose mantle she wears with such distinction, Anne Perry creates a rich and intimate world and fills it with remarkably vivid characters who experience the majesty-and shame-of the British Empire at its brilliant zenith. Now, in Brunswick Gardens, she explores the controversial birth of a philosophy that enflamed fiery debate-and possibly murder. A century ago, Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution rocked the civilized world, and the outraged Anglican church went on the warpath against it. In a mansion in London's affluent Brunswick Gardens, the battle is intense, as that most respected clergyman, the Reverend Ramsay Parmenter, is boldly challenged by his beautiful assistant, Unity Bellwood-a "new woman" whose feminism and aggressive Darwinism he finds appalling. When Unity, three months pregnant, tumbles down the Parmenter staircase to her death, Thomas Pitt, commander of the Bow Street police station, is virtually certain that one of the three deeply devout men in the house committed murder. Could it have been the Reverend Parmenter, his handsome curate, or his Roman Catholic son? Powerful forces demand that the scandalous matter be cleared up immediately. But Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, refuse to settle for less than the truth... and justice. Like all Anne Perry's novels, Brunswick Gardens translates great moral issues into deeply moving human dramas. Perhaps the most psychologically penetrating book she has written, it is a distinguished addition to her acclaimed body of work.

The freshly dead body sprawled on the Bedford Square doorstep of General Brandon Balantyne is an affront to every respectable sensibility. The general denies all knowledge of the shabbily dressed victim who has so rudely come to death outside his home, but Superintendent Thomas Pitt cannot believe him-for in the dead man's pocket, Pitt finds a rare snuffbox that recently graced the general's study. The superintendent must tread lightly, however, lest his investigation trigger a tragedy of immense proportions, ensnaring honorable men like flies in a web. Pitt's clever wife, Charlotte, becomes his full partner in probing this masterpiece of evil, spawned by an amorality greater than they can imagine.

Superintendent Thomas Pitt cannot immediately ascertain exactly what segment of society the dead man riding the morning tide of the Thames came from, but the sight of him is unforgettable. Is he, as Pitt fears, a French diplomat who has gone missing? Or merely someone who greatly resembles him?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In Victorian England, a divisive election is fast approaching. Passions are so enflamed that Thomas Pitt, shrewd mainstay of the London police, has been ordered not to solve a crime but to prevent a national disaster. The aristocratic Tory candidate, and Pitt's archenemy, is Charles Voisey. The Liberal candidate is Aubrey Serracold, whose wife's dalliance with spiritualism threatens his chances. Indeed, she is one of the participants in a late-night séance that becomes the swan song of a stylish clairvoyant who is found brutally murdered the next morning in her house on Southampton Row. Meanwhile, Pitt's wife, Charlotte, and their children are enjoying a country vacation, unaware that they, too, are deeply endangered by the same fanatical forces hovering over the steadfast Pitt.

Thomas Pitt, mainstay of Her Majesty's Special Branch, is summoned to Connaught Square mansion, where the body of a junior diplomat lies huddled in a wheelbarrow. Nearby stands the tenant of the house, the beautiful, notorious Egyptian woman Ayesha Zakhari, who falls under the shadow of suspicion. Pitt's orders are to protect, at all costs, the good name of the third person in the garden: senior cabinet minister Saville Ryerson. The distinguished public servant, whispered to be Ayesha's lover, insists that she is as innocent as Pitt himself. Pitt's journey to uncover the truth takes him from Egyptian cotton fields to the insidious London slum called Seven Dials, and ultimately to a packed London courtroom in which shocking secrets will at last be revealed.

After bombs explode during an anarchist attack in Long Spoon Lane, two of the culprits are captured and the leader is shot ... but by whom? As Thomas Pitt of the Special Branch delves into the case, he finds that there's more to the terrorism than the brutality of misguided idealists. Clues suggest that Inspector Wetron is the mastermind. As the shadowy leader of the Inner Circle, Wetron is using his influence with the press to stir up fears of more attacks and to rush a bill through Parliament that would severely curtail civil liberties. To defeat Wetron, Pitt must run in harness with his old enemy, Sir Charles Voisey. The unlikely allies are joined by Pitt's clever wife, Charlotte, and her great aunt, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould. As they strive to prevent future destruction, nothing less than the fate of the British Empire hangs in precarious balance.

The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to Buckingham Palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa. But the prince's gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute turns up in a linen closet among the queen's monogrammed sheets. With great haste, Thomas Pitt, the brilliant mainstay of Special Services, is summoned to resolve the crisis. The Pitts' cockney maid, Gracie, is also recruited to pose as a palace servant and listen in on the guests' conversations. If Pitt and Gracie fail to find out who brutally murdered the young woman, Pitt's career will be over, and the scandal may just cause the monarchy to fall.

The man who lies bleeding to death in a London brickyard is no ordinary drifter but a secret informant with details of an international plot against the British government. Special Branch officer Thomas Pitt, hastening to rendezvous with him, arrives seconds after the knife-wielding assassin-who, in turn, flees on an erratic course that leads Pitt in wild pursuit to picturesque St. Malo on the French coast. Meanwhile, Pitt's supervisor, Victor Narraway, stands accused of embezzling government funds. Since the man who ruined Narraway's career is in Ireland, Pitt's clever wife, Charlotte, agrees to pose as Narraway's sister and accompany him to Dublin to investigate. But unknown to Pitt and Narraway, a shadowy plotter is setting a trap that, once sprung, could destroy not just reputations but the British empire itself.

Thomas Pitt is now the powerful head of Britain's Special Branch, and some people fear that he may have been promoted beyond his abilities. His own self-doubt is fueled by rumors of a plot to blow up connections on the Dover-London rail line, on which Austrian duke Alois Habsburg is soon to travel. But why destroy an entire train to kill one obscure Austrian royal? Are the rumors designed to distract police from an even more devastating plot? Meanwhile, in a London sickroom, an old Italian woman is terrified that as she sinks into dementia, she may divulge secrets from her career as a revolutionary spy. And behind the doors of a stately manor, a beautiful young Croatian woman hoards mysteries of her own. Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, need these two fascinating women to tell them things they desperately need to know, before death and terror ignite an international catastrophe.

In this superbly accomplished new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt adventure, Anne Perry takes us beneath the glittering surface of wealthy Victorian society into a nightmare world of fear and intimidation, where women are too often blamed for the violent attacks against them, and powerful men take what they want, leaving others to pay the price. The horrifying rape and apparent suicide of Catherine Quixwood, wife of a wealthy merchant banker, falls outside the new jurisdiction of Special Branch head Thomas Pitt, but so pervasively offensive are the rumors about the victim that Pitt quietly takes a hand in the investigation. Yet even with the help of his ingenious wife, Charlotte, and his former superior, Victor Narraway, Pitt is stumped. Why did high-minded, cultured Catherine choose not to accompany her husband to a grand party on the night of her demise? Why did she dismiss all her servants for the evening and leave the front door unlocked? What had been her relationship with the young man seen frequently by her side at concerts and art exhibits? And what can be done to avenge another terrible crime: the assault on Angeles Castelbranco, beloved teenage daughter of the Portuguese.

Anne Perry's superb New York Times bestselling novels set in the glorious reign of Victoria are loved by readers far and wide. Now, with this new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery, Perry returns us to that charmed era, when wealth and power rule-but where, alas, poisonous corruption lies coiled in the heart of the empire. As commander of the powerful Special Branch, Thomas Pitt has the job of keeping Britain safe from spies and traitors. So there's no obvious reason why he is suddenly ordered to investigate two minor incidents: the blood, hair, and shards of glass discovered outside the home of naval weapons expert Dudley Kynaston, and the simultaneous disappearance of Mrs. Kynaston's beautiful lady's maid. But weeks later, when the mutilated body of an unidentified young woman is found near Kynaston's home, Pitt realizes that this is no ordinary police investigation. Far from it. Is Kynaston-one of Britain's most valuable scientists-leading a double life? Is Pitt saddled with a conspiracy so devilishly clever that it will ruin him? A baffled Pitt has never needed his friends more desperately, including his indomitable wife, Charlotte; his canny old colleague Victor Narraway; and his personal drawing-room spy, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould. But even these allies may not be able to save Pitt-or Britain. Only Anne Perry could have created the tense unfolding of plot and counterplot, love and betrayal, scandal and murder that follows. Death on Blackheath is rich with fascinating characters, authentic period flavor, knife's-edge suspense, and a haunting, unforgettable denouement.

In New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry, the glorious era when Britain reigned supreme has found its most brilliant modern interpreter. Perry's gripping new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel invites us back to Victorian London, where greed and ambition never sleep, and passion sometimes runs riot. As the nineteenth century draws to a close, most of Europe is in political turmoil, and terrorist threats loom large across the continent. Adding to this unrest is the controversial Sofia Delacruz, who has come to London from Spain to preach a revolutionary gospel of love and forgiveness that many consider blasphemous. Thomas Pitt, commander of Special Branch, is charged with protecting Sofia-and shielding Her Majesty's government from any embarrassment that this woman, as beautiful as she is charismatic, might cause. When Sofia suddenly vanishes and two of her female disciples are gruesomely murdered, Pitt is challenged as never before. Is Sofia's cousin, wealthy banker Barton Hall, somehow involved? And why has handsome cricket star Dalton Teague insinuated himself into Pitt's investigation? Fearful that this sensational crime may trigger an international incident, Pitt welcomes the help of three allies: his clever wife, Charlotte; her great-aunt, Lady Vespasia; and Victor Narraway, Pitt's friend and former commander at Special Branch. From the narrow streets of Toledo and a lonely monastery high in the hills of Spain, to the halls and wharves of London, Pitt and his friends race against time in their desperate bid to catch a murderer. Anne Perry is the acknowledged mistress of Victorian intrigue. No one else can match her period flavor, her all-too-human characters, or her haunting truths, which speak so clearly to our own time. The Angel Court Affair may be the best of all the beloved Thomas Pitt novels.

Gripping and provocative, the latest Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery by New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry peers unflinchingly into the corrupt affairs of Victorian society on the brink of the century's turn. The world is poised for social and political change, but England holds tight to its traditions, classes, and prejudices. When an explosion in London kills two policemen and seriously injures three more, many believe that anarchists are the culprits. But Thomas Pitt, commander of Special Branch, knows the city's radical groups well enough to suspect otherwise: that someone with decidedly more personal motives lit the deadly fuse. As he investigates the source of the fatal blast, he's stunned to discover the bombing was a calculated strike against the ranks of law enforcement. But still more shocking revelations await, as Pitt's inquiries lead him to a member of Parliament hoping for a lucrative business deal, a high-ranking police officer with secrets to keep, and an aristocratic opium addict seeking murderous revenge. As he pursues each increasingly threatening lead, Pitt finds himself impeded at every turn by the barriers put in place to protect the rich and powerful-barriers which, as they start to crumble, threaten to bury him alive.

Queen Victoria herself presents the head of England's top investigative force, Thomas Pitt, with his most high stakes case yet in the thirty-second installment of the New York Times bestselling series by Anne Perry. When Thomas Pitt is summoned to Queen Victoria's private chambers, he hardly knows what to expect. When she tells him that the body of one of her closest confidantes-Sir John Halberd-has been found in the Serpentine, he knows he is facing his most daunting and dangerous investigation yet. Sir John was a man who kept many secrets, moving within a circle of the most powerful and prominent members of London society. And the more Pitt learns about Sir John's past, the more he puts himself and his loved ones at risk. The royal family cannot be denied, but will the most important case of Pitt's career be his last?