Pentecost Alley

This is a five star book as are most of Ms. Perry's (except the WWI novels. I've never been able to get into them. My comment is prosaic at best but I couldn't let the anacronism pass. Tallulah Bankhead was the most famous of all the Tallulahs. In fact it is probably pretty certain there wasn't another Tallulah before her. Her father was the Powerhouse U.S. Senator from Alabama when his little girl was born and he named her Tallulah, a Native American name for a principal river in Alabama. So there is no way that Ms. Perry's character could have been named Tallulah. (It's still a five star read, tho.)

I came across Anne Perry's books by accident a few years ago, and have been thoroughly enjoying each new one that I encounter. Pentecost Alley continues the Perry tradition of melding social and political consciousness with good mystery plotting. I am certainly not the first - or last- to note Perry's wonderfully constructed characters and her heady Victorian atmosphere. This novel, in particular, comes with well-crafted, surprising twists which effectively transform the reader's perception of the events under investigation as the story unfolds. The ending is a bit contrived, but it is so satisfyingly achieved that I simply did not care. Highly recommended.

"Pentecost Alley" is another entry in Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. It is the thirteenth of these stories that I've read, so it would be safe to assume that I like the series. Perry seems to have a good feel for the period and her characters are well-drawn. She makes late nineteenth century London seem an exceedingly grim place, and perhaps by our standards it was, but other major cities of the day were likely worse (some still are). She sometimes spends a bit too much space on her soapbox expounding on the social evils of the day, something that Doyle avoided (to his credit -- his stories were always concise). Still, the social ills focused on are invariably central to the plot, so this is only a minor complaint. Some of Perry's earlier stories also suffered from rather simplistic plots. There was often a single character with a clearly dysfunctional personality, leaving the reader with only the details to figure out. All that is not a problem here, though. Perry makes it clear in the course of "Pentecost Alley" that she is against capital punishment (an opinion that is not necessarily germaine to the story), but the plot is intricate and intriguing. As public pressure mounts on Pitt, especially when it appears that the wrong man has been hanged for the murder of Ada McKinley, I felt his anxiety. The tension builds very effectively. Although I was able to identify a couple of characters who ended up in a central role, I still couldn't see how it all fitted together until very near the end.Fans will enjoy "Pentecost Alley" as another chance to spend time with all the regular characters: Thomas, Charlotte, Emily, Gracie, Caroline, Grandmama, the children, etc., but beyond that this is a first rate mystery that any mystery fan can sink his teeth into. I think this is one of Perry's best efforts, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading a good mystery, whether familiar with the series or not.

Anne Perry consistently writes good mystery and/or detective stories in themselves. What is a bonus is her outstanding descriptions of life in Victorian England. Having read many detective stories over the years, I find I need something extra to capture my interest and her ability to evoke a long gone colorful era is second to none.