Highgate Rise

I love these books. Anne Perry keeps it interesting and doesn't allow the story to lag. I will be reading all the books in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series.

This is one of the better entries in the series of Victorian murder mysteries featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt of the Metropolitan Police and his meddling wife, Charlotte. This time it's a death by arson in the affluent London suburb of Highgate. The victim is the wife of a local physician who escaped by being out on a call -- but was it really him they were after? There's a singular lack of clues and the local police are annoyed at Pitt's being called in anyway, so it's a particularly tough case. Charlotte and her sister, Emily, involve themselves by attending funerals and memorials and asking leading questions -- their usual m.o., in fact. Perry always includes a social issue to fulminate against and this time it's the profits made by aristocratic families from ownership of slum tenements. The Inner Circle appears, too, but only peripherally, which was a good decision on the author's part.

Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's maid, Gracie, has been admiring her mistress's detecting adventures for the past few books, but her participation in this story adds a freshness to the plot and the characterizations. Dedicated readers of the Pitt series know Charlotte, Emily, Thomas, and Great Aunt Vespasia so well now that new characters are always welcome additions to the cast.In this story Pitt is called in to investigate a mysterious fire and death in Highgate, a prosperous northern suburb of London. While most London policemen are investigating the Jack the Ripper murders at Whitechapel, Pitt must get to the botom of how and why the Shaw house was set ablaze and whether the intended victim was really Clemency Shaw, a modest woman involved in social reform, or her husband Dr. Shaw.The ending of this mystery was not really up to Perry's usual standards. I was pretty sure who had done the deed from the beginning, but as usual Perry provided some excellent and suprising insights into the other secrets lurking on Highgate Rise.

Having read all the previous Pitt novels in the series, I found arson a refreshing change from the usual murder weapon of choice...the characters were complicated and well-developed, and the murderer was in question until the end--but then Perry picked the most obvious choice for the villain, which disappointed me--I was expecting some great revelation, but instead, we got someone whose motives were already obvious (so obvious I'd written the character in question off my list of suspects ^_^), and the cheesy way the confession came about read like a melodrama. Other than the unconvincing ending, the book was quite good, and Gracie finally got some a share of the adventure! If there's one thing you can count on, Anne Perry always has some interesting development in her characters' personal lives, no matter what the case.

Loved this book - just the right mix of "moral" and mystery. I prefer the books where Charlotte and Thomas are both active, and this gives a good mix. The period detail is excellent (as usual)and the mystery is solid too.

Some good writing here, needs a few things though to keep me buying book after book. This story has a very well developed plot, UNTIL the end. It seemed that the most convenient villain was chosen and it left me thinking "No she did NOT do this to me after 342 pages"! The ending came out of nowhere, but not in that clever way that marks a true work of art. The characters were likable, and there were some quote worthy lines in this story, but I kept waiting for some real suspense. Waiting for suspense IS the suspense. However the author does do her homework and there is a ton of edifying information about the living conditions in England during this time period. Nutshell is a good book to read before bed, because it is not hard to put down when you're ready to turn the lights off.