Customer Reviews

Ashworth Hall (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Novels)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This audio book is respresented here as 'Unabridged.' It is not. It is abridged. I know, I own a copy.

I have found this misrepresentation very often here on Amazon.com

As a diehard Anne Perry fan, I was disappointed in Ashworth Hall. I couldn't stay with it. I don't know what went wrong! I have loved every other book she's written, and I've read all but the newest Thomas and Charlotte, and one Monk. Ashworth Hall didn't seem like an Anne Perry book at all.

Having read all of the Pitt and Monk novels, I find myself continuing to look forward to the next one despite seeing the same flaws repeated from novel to novel. The real strength of her writing, and which fascinates me, is the characterization of interesting people-their lives and emotions- during an exciting period in time. The mysteries themselves often require such amazing leaps in logic and fantastic coincidences that I find my belief occasionally strained. This does not detract from my enjoyment of the novels, however!

This is the third Anne Perry novel I have read. They are all well crafted, intelligent cozy mysteries, along with an interesting portrayal of the culture and politics of Victorian England. This particular book revolves around a peace conference for Ireland which is being held at Ashworth Hall, hence the title. Ashworth Hall happens to be the home of the sister-in-law of Inspector (now Superintendent) Pitt, who is the hero of this series of Perry's novels. Moreover, the politician presiding over the conference has been the subject of death threats in the recent past. So Pitt is asked to attend the conference, without revealing his identity, as a security measure to prevent foul play.

Unfortunately, Pitt fails. Two murders are committed despite his efforts, terrifying both the guests and the sizable contingent of servants. We then have the usual collection of suspects and motives, and Pitt eventually sorts through all of the information to solve the mystery - with considerable help from his wife Charlotte and their maid Gracie.

It's a tightly written mystery, along with a convincing portrayal of Victorian mores and the unending hatreds in Ireland. It doesn't quite rise to the level of true literature, as Elizabeth George's and P. D. James's books often do, but it's a solid, high-quality production.

I had a hard time maintaining interest in this book. I've read all of Ms. Perry's books and have never had this problem. It was difficult to keep the characters and their beliefs straight. However this book has sparked an interest for me in the Irish Problem.

If you've read many of the books in this series, as I have, part of the pleasure comes from renewing your acquintance with the regulars that inhabit them. It's like meeting old friends that you haven't seen in a while. Getting the latest update on Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and the other recurring characters is as much a part of the enjoyment as is whatever case is on tap. Moreover, Ms. Perry, if a little preachy, generally writes an entertaining story. On that basis, I typically rate these four star reads.

ASHWORTH HALL gives you all the usual. You get the latest in the lives of the Pitt family members and friends and you get a decent whodunit. The problem here, for me, was in the situation and backdrop. The story finds Thomas trying to provide security for secret negotiations involving some leading Irish catholic and protestant leaders. Murder ensues, of course, but by the time it was over I was just glad to get rid of the people on both sides. They all came across to me as self-righteous, bigoted, and selfishly motivated. I didn't like any of them much and I didn't care what happened to any of them. Also, beyond that, the situation seemed overly contrived, as did the "romance" involving Gracie (I know, fiction is all contrived, but it's a matter of degree). It seemed too unlikely in the circumstances and too convenient in the context of the plot. Given my reaction to these elements, I didn't find the story particularly engaging.

If you're a Pitt fan, you'll want to read ASHWORTH HALL, but it isn't, in my opinion, one of the better tales in this series. Further, and from a personal standpoint, though I enjoy the series, I'd like to see Ms. Perry put aside the Victorian social and political issues sometime and just give us a top-notch whodunit that's not doubling as a "morality play".

After reading this book, I am hungry to go back and read all about the Irish Problem in the scholarly literature. In addition to her usual satisfying mysteries wrapped around the sights, sounds, and--yes--the smells of Victorian England, Anne Perry gets us to care about people on both sides of the political dispute at the heart of the conference at Charlotte's sister Emily's lordly estate. The characters who are here from earlier volumes in the Pitt series continue to grow, surprise, and delight--none more so than Gracie, the Pitts' "maid of all work." Her worse-than-impoverished childhood has left her unafraid in the face of danger, but here we see her first journey into affairs of the heart. Whoever wins her heart in future adventures will be a lucky man indeed. I'll have some more tea, and yes, please pass the crumpets. .

Perry does her usual fine job with this Pitt mystery, but it is the worst example of the one flaw I have found in every Perry Pitt and Monk mystery.

That flaw: that although she solves the mystery in the last pages, she also always leaves all kinds of secondary story threads hanging. I always want to know more about the characters, about what happens after the killer has been caught. Agatha Christie, in fewer pages, provides just as much detail about the characters but still manages to tie up all the story threads.

The ending of Ashworth Hall, however, has an even more serious flaw (no spoiler here): it is not at all clear who the murderer(s) is/are. I've read the last few pages several times and I am still not sure who did what to whom. It is frustrating in the extreme.

_Ashworth Hall_ is another of Anne Perry's long-running series of mysteries featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt. In this one, Perry deals with the "Irish Problem". The novel deals with a conference between two leading Catholics and two leading Protestants, in England at the title Hall, Charlotte's sister Emily's country home. A death threat aimed at the English diplomat heading the conference leads the government to send Pitt to the weekend meeting, incognito, with the excuse that Emily has simply invited her sister. Pitt fails utterly, as the diplomat is murdered, and in the course of the investigation, another man is also murdered. Pitt, Charlotte, and their longtime servant Gracie unravel the strings of the various murders, uncovering long-festering strands of the Irish Problem (especially as Gracie has a brief romance with an Irish Catholic), as well as typically sordid family details. This all plays out with the famous Parnell/O'Shea divorce case in the background, which case in fact lead to Parnell's discrediting as a serious factor, and thus possibly put off any "solution" to the "problem" for at least decades, if not, dare I say, sadly, for much longer still

I found this pretty unsatisfying. Much was very predictable. Perry's habit of telling, at endless length, what is motivating her characters, and what her characters are feeling, rather than showing, is really getting on my nerves. Also her constant repetition of the same themes of rich men committing callous adultery, their wives taking it more or less stoically, until something precipitates violence, realistic as it may be, is getting very stale. I guessed two of the villains pretty much right off: granted that Perry did pull one additional twist which surprised me. But all in all, this is one of the weakest of Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt books. (Note that many of the earlier books are very enjoyable.)

As the author gets farther and farther into this popular series of police procedural murder mysteries set in late Victorian England, she seems to be struggling for original plots, and for something new to say regarding the sordidness of much of high society and the need for drastic reform. But this 17th book starring Superintendent Pitt, a self-made man, and his wife, Charlotte, who "married down," is one of the best yet. All the previous stories have been set in and around London, but this one is Perry's take on the "country house mystery." It's 1890 and the British government is trying hard to find some solution to the Irish problem, but centuries of mutual hatred between the native Irish Catholics and the Protestants imposed upon Ireland by earlier monarchs have made that nearly impossible. (And still have, for that matter, in the Northern Counties.) Charlotte's sister, Emily, who married up, to a peer, still manages her late husband's fortune (in trust for her small son, his heir), including a sizable country estate. Now that her second husband, Jack Radley, is in Parliament, Emily is asked to make her place available for a summit meeting between representatives of both sides in the Irish mess, with a report of recommendations later to be made to Parliament. Pitt is detailed to handle security, though he's passing himself off at first as merely Emily's guest. And he takes Sergeant Tellman along, disguised as his valet -- which is hilarious, since Tellman loathes the very notion of anyone being a personal servant to anyone else. Hardly has the conference begun when Ainsley Greville, a skilled diplomat and negotiator and moderator for the weekend, is murdered in his bath. A political assassination, obviously, perpetrated by those who despise the idea of compromise over Ireland. Or maybe not. Jack is asked to try to take Greville's place in continuing the negotiations -- until a dynamite bomb destroys his study and one of the Irish attendees is killed in the explosion. Pitt has his hands full, naturally, and so does Charlotte. The cast of characters is better developed than usual, and the background about Ireland is far more skillfully presented than Perry's previous, rather melodramatic, diatribes on slums and women's rights. For many reasons, I'm rather an Anglophile, and I have no use whatever for the authoritarianism of the Roman Catholic (or any other) Church -- but when it comes to Ireland, I'm on the side of my own ancestors from Kerry, who were thrown off their land in the 1830s and fled the Olde Sod for the American midwest. Yet Perry does an excellent job showing how the Irish have themselves to blame for their troubles, at least as much as the English. The sub-plots, about Charlotte's maid, Gracie, and her first romantic experience, and the Montague-Capulet affair between a Protestant conference attendee and the wife of a Catholic, are also well done and fit right into the story. (Perry's parallel plots often stick out like sore-thumb afterthoughts.) My only complaint, in fact, is that we never find out about the true identity of the man with the light-colored eyes.