Customer Reviews

Belgrave Square

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the twelfth book in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series of mysteries, and I think it is the best of the series so far. As with all Perry mysteries in the series it begins with the discovery of a body: the body of William Weems, a moneylender. Pitt is asked to investigate the case--even though it is out of the Bow Street jurisdiction--by his boss, Micah Drummond. As Pitt gets to the bottom of the mystery we meet with secret societies, suicide, parliamentary politics, and many secrets. There is a good balance in this book between Charlotte and Thomas, and the supporting character who rises to the top of the story is Micah Drummond.

I was completely baffled regarding motivations until the very last page, when the murderer of Weems was finally revealed. This is an engaging and exciting mystery that you won't be able to put down!

For those unfamiliar with this series, Inspector Pitt is a police detective in Victorian England, in the period shortly after the professional police force was first established. Policemen were respected to a degree, but apparently had about the same social status as a skilled laborer. Pitt's wife, Charlotte, on the other hand, is from a much wealthier and higher-status family. Indeed, Charlotte's sister is married to a wealthy and well-connected man who is being considered for a vacancy in Parliament. That connection enables Charlotte to participate discreetly in Pitt's investigations when they require a peek into the activities of society's upper crust.

The story: a sleazy loan shark is found shot to death in an unusually gruesome manner. Almost everyone who knew the man had good reason to want him dead. Even Inspector Pitt, who is assigned to investigate the case, can't avoid the feeling that the murderer did the rest of society a favor. But murder is illegal, and so the investigation goes on.

It quickly develops that the victim was not only a loan shark, but a blackmailer as well, with several socially prominent people on his list of victims. Hence the investigation must proceed delicately. And that's where (as usual) Pitt's wife, Charlotte, lends a hand.

If you are already familiar with Anne Perry's Inspector Pitt series, you know that she's one of the very best mystery writers around. Personally, I think Elizabeth George and possibly P. D. James are her only superiors in the field. It's hard to rank one book in the series against the others, but this one certainly upholds the high standards of the entire series. The characterizations are vivid and believable, the plot is complex and captivating, and the ending is logical and satisfying. My only complaint about the book (and it applies to all the Inspector Pitt books) is the constant obsession with differences in social class. Those differences existed in Victorian England, of course, but I find it hard to believe they were such a preoccupation in everyone's mind, minute by minute, day after day, as Perry makes them out to be. The class distinctions were more likely taken for granted, like the weather.

If you're a mystery fan and you haven't read any of Perry's work, then this is as good an introduction to the series as any. You're in for a treat.

I have to laugh - this is my favorite book so far in the Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series. Why laugh? Because I realized at the end that the murder that starts the sequence of events off is really unneccesary! Now don't let me spoil the story for you with that comment, because it really is quite a good book. The relationship between Thomas and Charlotte really takes shape here - as much as they love each other, I always wondered how they could both get over the differences in their pasts. They do, but this book shows that it takes work and understanding. In the end, the mystery is good (even if I'm still puzzled about it) and the character studies are even better.

I've read all 23 of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt books, and this entry has more than any other of what we love Anne Perry for -- the beautifully drawn descriptions of high and low Victorian life; the interweaving of Charlotte's family's goings-on with the main plot; wonderfully realized secondary characters; etc. In Belgrave Square, we learn for the first time of the deadly secret society known as the Inner Circle, which will return to haunt Charlotte, Thomas, and their families in future books. The main police business at issue -- who blew the head off nasty userer William Weems -- is slightly over-the-top, if undeniably dramatic; but it has several rivals for the reader's attention, including the compelling romance of Micah Drummond and Eleanor Byam (very touching and believable) and the love triangle of Fanny Hilliard, Fitz Fitzpatrick, and Odelia Morden. Thomas and Charlotte themselves continue to grow in interesting ways; here, Charlotte is forced out of her happy-married-woman complacency, learning a new sympathy for the travails of others even when they are not particularly likeable people. There's even a fascinating lesson in colonial economics tucked away in all the plotting and subplotting! But the capper of the book for me is the delicious encounter between Lady Vespasia and Lily Langry at an upper-crust garden party. Every time I reread it, I'm impressed anew by Perry's ability to set a vivid scene and draw her readers into the absurd but deadly serious etiquette games of another time and place.

I've read the 11 "Pitt" books prior to this, but I enjoyed this the most.
Some thoughts:
-It's not necessary to have read previous books in the series to find one's way around the characters and setting.
-The book is populated with interesting characters.
-Our friend Micah Drummond also plays a noteworthy expanded role.
-Most important for a mystery like this, the ending needs to be satisfying. And did I love this ending! (No peeking!)

Thomas Pitt is a police inspector in London, circa 1890. He has been removed from more routine cases to handle a special investigation. An unsavory usurer (loan shark) has been killed, and some high placed people have an interest. It seems the usurer was also a blackmailer. Someone else may now have information damaging to various people.

The novel provides a good picture of the social climbing and snobishness of Victorian England, where the old school tie meant a lot, mistresses were OK as long as you were discreet, and an exposed skeleton could ruin you socially, destroy your children's marriage prospects, and get you blackballed from club membership. People were expected to be seen in the right places, but you could not accept invitations unless you returned them, and a woman could not possibly wear the same dress or hat to two functions.

Events are compounded by a shadowy secret society that goes beyond the old school tie. People are not telling the whole truth about their relationships, and investigations by Pitt (with some additional nosing around by his wife) reveal well hidden secrets. The novel comes to a surprising conclusion as truths are revealed.

The novel has some sexual content and violence.

This is a quiet, rather slow mystery with the apparent hidden theme that everyone in the story must fall in love. Loan shark and blackmailer Weems is killed, and the inspector Pitt must track down the people listed in his papers -- including some members of high society and some members of his own police force. Meanwhile, his wife Charlotte is helping her pregnant sister Emily deal with the demands placed on a would-be MP's wife. And everyone -- Pitt's superior Drummond, and people both of society and not -- falls in love, though not necessarily with happy results.

Perry writes in a competent, though not artistic, way. Her characters seem believable as people, with one exception which I'll get to, but are not striking or outstanding. She is at her best with setting: the etiquette, fashion and stifling "correctness" of late Victorian society are well delineated here. The newness of a police force and its iffy social status form an interesting part of Perry's world.

I found the plot to terminate with a twist that had not been sufficiently foreshadowed. Instead of "Oh, of course," it made me say "Huh? Where'd that come from?". It is a good twist, but it needs some foundation. The characters involved need to show, at least in retrospect, better signs of their hidden relationship. Also, the means of Weem's death, which promised to be interesting, was never really explored.

Belgrave Square has everything in it that makes Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries so enjoyable - the in-depth look at Victorian Society, with much tongue-in-cheek humor, the police procedure, the contrast between the rich and the poor, Charlotte's involvement in Thomas's case, the developments in characters we've come to know and love, and all the sub-plots and sidelines that prevent us from solving the case before Thomas does. In this book, there is a good balance among all those factors, and Charlotte's involvement is not contrived (as it has been in some of the novels). If you aren't hooked (and therefore reading all the Pitt stories chronologically), don't miss this one - it is enjoyable whether you've read any of her others or not.

It's 1889 and Inspector Thomas Pitt of the London police, who has become something of a specialist in politically sensitive cases, has been called in on the case of a murdered loan shark -- not his usual sort of case. The man was also a blackmailer, however, with several society gentlemen among his victims -- and also two ranking members of the police force, which makes matters even more touchy. Pitt gradually works through the possibilities, making this one of the better efforts in the series, even though a secret political conspiracy turns out to be responsible. The characterizations are well done, too. Emily's new husband, Jack Radley, is attempting to get himself selected as a candidate for Parliament and because she's pregnant, Charlotte (Emily's sister and Pitt's wife) has to step in for her as political hostess. This allows several parallel sociological and romantic plots, but they're less intrusive than usual. (Secret societies and usury are less controversial than women's rights, I guess.) The author also manages not to telegraph the entirely believable ending this time -- a weakness of which she is sometimes guilty.

I have to laugh - this is my favorite book so far in the Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series. Why laugh? Because I realized at the end that the murder that starts the sequence of events off is really unneccesary! Now don't let me spoil the story for you with that comment, because it really is quite a good book. The relationship between Thomas and Charlotte really takes shape here - as much as they love each other, I always wondered how they could both get over the differences in their pasts. They do, but this book shows that it takes work and understanding. In the end, the mystery is good (even if I'm still puzzled about it) and the character studies are even better.