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In July 2003 I first came across Anne Perry’s “Charlotte and Thomas Pitt” series. I read 17 of them, including this one. However, I read them all out of order – and many of them were not available at all at my Library so it was a bit of a scrambled mess. One thing I do remember: I loved reading this series.When I decided to fill in the gaps, I noticed that I had not read #2 through and including #5. So as soon as I had an available series spot, I decided to rectify this. Then I decided to read t...
The Beginning!This is the first book that I read by Anne Perry and I fell in love with her writing. I must say, she does seem to be a little sympathetic to the murderer, but that could be because of her own childhood.
3.5 Stars Imagine if you will a society that expected women to stifle their feelings for the good of all. A proper lady would marry, bear children and serve her husband and family. She was to be pleasing and her household was presumed to run with complete order. Her goal was to avoid any cause for upset and she was expected to look the other way when necessary.Charlotte Ellison was a product of the times. Though they loved her immensely, she was the bane of her parents. In her early twenties, sh...
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 reliable. In fact, the story is intriguing, well-written, with an interesting twist at the end and a strong component of social commentary that is as relevent today as to the time period in which the story i...
This books is a happy marriage between Lieutenant Colombo and Jane Austen! LOLFor the major part of the book I kept asking myself why the series is titled "Thomas Pitt" when he appears almost marginally there...For the first half I was also wondering if I got the wrong book since it seemed more like a romance than crime/mystery!Yes, there're crimes commited, but for the most part there's also a rigid protocol of visits, parish good-works, formal visits for tea, family dynamics, unrequited love,
As usual, I read the first book in this great Victorian mystery series somewhere around book three or four... Anne Perry is a great mystery writer with a sense of Victorian past... I definitely need to go back and finish this series.
This is Anne Perry’s first published novel, and it’s not too bad. I look forward to continuing this series (27 books!) which takes place in the late 1800’s, about 20-30 years later than her other Victorian mysteries featuring William Monk.This book describes the meeting, under tragic circumstances, of Police Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, the daughter of a banker. Young women in Charlotte’s neighborhood are being murdered, and Pitt investigates the crimes while initiating a few mor...
Anne Perry obviously did a great deal of research on Victorian England for this book, and she certainly paints a detailed picture of that time and its people. She definitely reveals the hypocrisy of the age. However, the conversations during which Pitt enlightens Charlotte about the “criminal underworld” and other aspects of life unfamiliar to her began to feel like the author lecturing the reader. While I liked Charlotte and Pitt, some of the other characters became tedious at times. Perhaps th...
More of a family drama in the background of a series of murder of local womenA bit trying, all that drama, was, and the end too abrupt.However, I did like the MCs well enough to try the next book in the series of 30 😵 odd books
I really enjoyed this Victorian Murder mystery. A nod to Jack the Ripper style but oh no Jack here......
Historical mystery has turned out to be a favourite genre of mine. There is something very intriguing about watching the police attempting to solve crime without the use of all our modern techniques. Often, as in this case, the murderer is captured in the act which is pretty conclusive!I had a few small issues with this book, for example the occasional info dumps which I actually skimmed. However these were more than made up for by the excellent story and the characters. I loved the little roman...
Anne Perry is beloved and prolific. I picked up many books and discovered they belonged in series. I often wonder if historic society will feel too oppressed to enjoy, or to relate to protagonists. This writer shows a world without reciting an instruction manual and a reasonable percentage of scenes scurry towards the point of the story. With mystery, that is a must. In fact I would encourage her to let us unwind, following revelations. Her novels end with a thud; exciting but I would love to ab...
The story started so slowly that I was a little apprehensive about reading on, but it soon got better. Although this is light reading I thought it very enjoyable.
I read this on a day I stayed home sick from work. I felt terrible, but escaping into this book gave me several hours of wonderful distraction. Perry perfectly evoked the spirit and flavor of the era and what life was like for an intelligent and curious young woman in a time when those were not considered favorable attributes for women.The mystery is good, touching as it does the obsessions the Victorians had for sex and religion. The best thing for me in The Cater Street Hangman is the sense of...
I stayed up until 5:30am listening to this audiobook, because it was due back at the library today. I can't say that it was wasted time. It was a pretty good book and the narrator, Davina Porter does a satisfying job. However, I didn't love this book. I think the major issue I had was that I found most of the characters unlikable.Charlotte did grow on me. She had some notions and beliefs that weren't ideal (she tended to be very naive about things and was somewhat snobbish and judgmental towards...
The Cater Street Hangman is the first book in the Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry. Inspector Pitt caught a case of the killing of young ladies at night around Cater Street London. During his investigation, Inspector Pitt met the beautiful Charlotte Ellison after the death of her maid. The Readers of The Cater Street Hangman will follow the twists and turns of Inspector Pitt investigation into the murders and will wonder if Charlotte and Inspector Pitt will fall in love.I never thought I would e...
I never really got into the rest of the series (or the Monk ones), but I really like this book. Rereading it now, there's a definite modern feminist slant, but it's never to the detriment of the plot, and is a big part of shaping Charlotte's characterization. The mystery is well-plotted and engaging, and you can practically hear the gas lamps sputtering...
Some history, before I dive into the book. Yesterday, I read about the late Dee Dee Blancharde who clearly suffered from Munchhausen by proxy. One thing led to another, as it does so often in such cases, and soon, I was reading about the infamous Parker-Hulme murder case. Imagine my surprise when I read Hulme was actually a critically acclaimed writer! So I bought the Kindle edition of this book five minutes later, and here we are now. Right off the bat, for some reason, the blurb made me think
Not a bad beginning to Perry's historical-fiction-detective-mystery-romance-family-saga-kitchen-sink. There's not a lot of detecting. From my experience reading her books, the mysteries don't tend to be diabolically clever. I had this one pretty much figured out early on. Perry's interest in writing seems to be more about character portrayal. There are definitely some colorful sketches herein. If you're an Austen fan, who also likes a bit of Dickensian murder and woe, this might be the series fo...
What I thought I was getting: (i.e. the synopsis on Goodreads)Careless of both murder and manners, Charlotte Ellison and her sister, two determinedly unconventional young women, ignore Victorian mores and actively join the police investigation, led by young Inspector Thomas Pitt, into the murder of their servant girl.What I actually got:Charlotte: "Oh my! These deaths are so tragic. I'll say everything that comes to my mind. Isn't my brother-in-law hot? Women are so down-trodden."Emily: "Oh sure...