Customer Reviews

Bethlehem Road

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

 

 

Bethlehem Road is the tenth novel in the Pitt series of mysteries by Anne Perry. While I would recommend reading the series in order for maximum enjoyment, the characters are at a turning point in this book and so you could just jump in here if you wish. Charlotte Ellison Pitt is really getting comfortable in her role as a police Inspector's wife; Thomas Pitt, her husband, has a more sympathetic and appreciative new boss; Emily Ellison March (Charlotte's sister) just married for a second time; and Aunt Vespasia is starting to show alarming new signs of frailty and age. Together, Thomas, Charlotte and Vespasia work together to solve the mystery of the "Westminster Cutthroat" who is murdering MPs on Westminster Bridge.

What I most liked about this mystery was the number of red herrings that were thrown in the way of the conclusion. I found myself unable to figure out who had perpetrated the crimes and went down lots of blind alleys as a result. This added to my enjoyment of the book, although the ending was a bit Christie-like in all honesty. I'm really looking forward to Highgate Rise, the next book in the series, since Bethlehem Road sets up so many interesting new possibilities.

BETHLEHEM ROAD is another installment in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series. As such, it has all of the usual features: interesting and, in many cases, familiar characters, an intriguing plot, Victorian London as the backdrop, and a burning social issue of the day that plays a significant role in the story. As occaisionally happens, Ms. Perry lets her soapbox get in the way of her mystery once or twice in this one, but that's only a minor problem.

For most of the story, the plot revolves around a series of murders involving MPs. Each is found tied to the same lamppost with his throat cut. Each was returning home alone and on foot from an evening session of Parliament. This is pretty riveting stuff, and for most of the book there is no obvious suspect. The only suspect on the horizon seems unlikely to be the perpetrator. Both Thomas and Charlotte are baffled. Ultimately, however, the solution to this mystery is only the prelude to the real climax of the story, which is abrupt in true Anne Perry style. For me, the solution to (or, really, the rationale for) the lamppost murders is this book's weakness and it's what keeps this from being a five-star book. The lamppost murders need more of a tie-in. At the risk of giving away too much, it just seemed to me that the lack of intent and motive for these murders left a little to be desired when all was said and done.

BETHLEHEM ROAD is a pretty good mystery with most of the strengths usually found in the Pitt series. While Perry perhaps over-reaches herself a bit here in trying to pull off a plot within a plot, it will keep readers turning the pages from beginning to end. I found it entertaining and recommend it to other mystery readers, particularly fans of the Pitt series.

The statue of Boadicea driving her war chariot stands in front of the British Parliament building. Members of Parliament (MPs), walking past the statue every day, contended that women did not have the ability to understand issues and vote intelligently. The year is 1888 and women's rights are a contentious issue. When MPs have their throats cut on the way home from evening sessions, suspicion points in many directions. Was it a radical women's rights advocate, a demented anarchist, or perhaps someone benefiting financially?

Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, become involved in the investigation. The entire issue of women's rights unfolds including various repressive laws. There are issues of inheritance, child custody, and a wife's obligations to her husband (religious fundamentalists in the U.S. have been revisiting this issue). This is a real whodunit with a surprising conclusion. The novel provides a good picture of the English social structure of that time period.

Is it political intrigue or domestic intrigue? take a guess! Perry and her characters show us all of the victims of disenfranchisement in Victorian England. A bit hard to believe how much power men had over women, how they exercised it in the absolute certitude of their rightness, and how little others questioned. But then, the imbalance of power, in whatever setting, inevitably leads to abuse and there are bullies everywhere, refined and not, Victorian era, or Clinton era. This mystery keeps one going most of the way through, and has some suprises. Perry's endings are always tight and abrupt, but she usually ties up all the loose ends, so one adjusts to the sudden end. However, this time either I missed it, or there was no explanation for the policeman who was knocked out and left in the Park (almost dead). Who did that, and why? Did I miss it, or did Ms Perry?

ISBN 0449219143 - This is the first book I've read from this series. Perhaps starting with the tenth book is the problem, I don't know. Whatever the problem is, I was rather unimpressed with Bethlehem Road.

Inspector Thomas Pitt's latest mystery is a headline-maker, for sure. A Member has been found murdered in a spectacular fashion: his throat slit and his body tied to a lamppost by a scarf around his neck - in a matter of minutes, on a nice evening, just walking home! The suspects are few but become more numerous quickly, as another M.P. turns up dead in the same way. From family members to anarchists, from women agitating for the right to vote to just plain lunatics, soon Pitt has plenty of suspects... and another murder! Fear grips London and Parliament. Not one to be idle, Pitt's wife Charlotte finds herself caught up in her husband's case, as well. A friend of her great aunt is related to one of the primary suspects and they turn to Mrs Pitt for assistance. Charlotte and the two older women set out to discover the facts, hoping to gain access where the police would be denied.

The resolution of the case is so entirely out of the blue as to be ridiculous. Author Anne Perry did a great job of creating the world of 1888, a very Sherlockian world and one that you could easily imagine as home to Jack the Ripper (he's not in the book, just the real-world timeline). The subject of women's rights got a little tedious to read, a little too preachy and ranting for me, and every now and then I'd find my mind wandering mid-sentence, not a good thing.

The path from the start to the very end was strewn with red herrings and characters that the reader would love to find guilty - and several that the reader would love to let off the hook, if they were guilty. The problem, for me, is that I read mysteries with a vague hope of playing along and Bethlehem Road offered me no real chance of doing that. I made guesses and picked up on the real villain right from the start, but being a villain isn't the same as being a murderer and the identity of that person was something I could not have guessed at with the clues provided. I'm disappointed, but enjoyed Perry's style so much that I'm likely to return for another mystery with the Pitts.

- AnnaLovesBooks

This is one of Perry's earlier books. It is quite repetitive. You skip around inside the minds of the main characters, as they think over and over and over and over again about the possible reasons for three murders. It's like Perry had a glimmer of an idea about the murders, but then she didn't know what to do with it. The book makes no progress for three-quarters of the pages. The word "anarchy" or "anarchist," as a possible reason for the murders, occurs time and time again. The book is boring, but you keep reading in fits and starts, hoping that suddenly there will be some insights or progress. Neither Pitt nor Charlotte, his wife, nor anyone else has a clue, though, about the murders. Also, Perry's attempt to echo late 19th-century phrasing is often too long and windy and unclear. Some of her sentences and trains of thought don't make any sense.

This is the tenth in the Victorian murder mystery series about Inspector Thomas Pitt of the London police and his inquisitive wife, Charlotte. The plot involves the murder of a Member of Parliament on Westminster Bridge, the body then being strung up to a lamp post with a scarf. Pitt can't decide if the motive was personal or political -- but then a second, identical murder occurs, the victim (also an M.P.) having very little in common with the first, except that both men opposed female suffrage. But then, so did most politicians in 1888. But that's not the end of the murders either. So far, so good. But when the killer is finally identified in the next-to-last chapter, my reaction was "Wait -- what?" It is considered extremely bad form for a mystery writer to introduce a brand new character at the last minute, and then to identify that person as the villain. Pitt doesn't quite get it, either, and spends a few pages at the end tracking down the story behind the story -- which turns out to be another moral lesson on women's rights. This whole thing could have been handled far more skillfully. Also, I don't know what possesses Perry to give a majority of her characters bizarre names -- at least those in the upper reaches of society. For every James or Helen, there is a plethora of Zenobias, Amethysts, Garnets, Parthenopes, Vyvyans, Africas, Vespasias, and other names unknown before or since. A quick browse through the 1880 edition of _Burke's Peerage and Baronetage_ would show this penchant for uncommon Christian names to be a rather ludicrous invention. This is not one of Perry's better books.

I reserve 9's and 10's for more substantive works than mysteries - but this is about as good as mysteries get. I have had the misfortune to read attempts to combine a mystery story with feminist preaching by, among others, Dorothy Simpson and Nancy Pickard. All were lame, transparent attempts to cloak a political harangue with a poorly constructed story. Anne Perry shows us how it really should be done. This is an excellent story, as are all of Perry's Inspector Pitt books. The underlying theme is the shockingly discriminatory treatment of women by the legal and political system of Victorian England. But that theme is never allowed to interfere with the logical unfolding of the mystery. Therefore, Perry succeeds on both the philosophical and entertainment levels, where other authors have failed. Good work, Ms. Perry

A Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Victorian murder mystery, Bethlehem Road opens with the grizzly slashing murder of an eldery conservative MP.

Inspector Thomas Pitt investigates the crime while his beautiful, aristocratic wife, Charlotte, attends a women's suffrage meeting. Here she encounters a whole new world fraught with the conflicting problems generated by the hopeless political aspirations of struggling women in male dominated society.

After Charlotte's sister, Emily, remarries, Charlotte's great Aunt Vespasia, a formidable and lovable dowager, approaches her with with a most unusual request. An eccentric old friend's beloved niece and her female lover are under suspicion of murder. The very murder Thomas Pitt is investigating.

Putting their heads and hearts together, Charlotte and Thomas explore diverging lines of inquiry that may help to prove the suspected women innocent. High born Charlotte, together with Great Aunt Vespasia and Vespasia's friend Zenobia, focus on subtlely investigating their society peers, while Thomas hits the streets where his detecting skills and instincts are unaparalleled. Just when all clues are leading nowhere and their hope appears to be lost, Thomas stumbles upon a vital clue that will crack the case wide open.

A fast paced murder mystery, Bethlehem Road is chocked full of plot twists and turns that leave the reader spinning and boasts an unexpected but satisfying ending. Including everything from from the early days of the women's sufferage movement to political anarchists, religious cults and bedlam inmates, Bethlehem Road is a thoroughly entertaining page turner ! Any fan of Victorian era mysteries will enjoy this one. 5 Stars

I am a huge Anne Perry fan. That said, this book brought out mixed emotions. The way that Perry deals with the characters is of course always a delight, and I'm particularly a Vespasia fan.

I think Perry was using this book to be experimental. The book's not so much a whodunit as it is a whydunit, in my opinion. That said, one of the things that I enjoyed about this book is that it breaks with Perry's tradition of introducing the solution within literally the last 5 pages. More often than not, even her longer works may drag the mystery until the very end, leaving no real closure.

It's not a book for everyone, and some mystery buffs might even say that it breaks a cardinal rule. That said, I enjoyed it.