Cardington Crescent [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1989

When the womanizing aristocrat George March is found dead over his morning coffee, the immediate concern of his shocked Cardington Crescent household is quieting the scandal as discreetly—and quickly—as possible. Unfortunately for March’s wife, Emily, that means accusing her of the murder. But the family does not take into account Emily’s beloved sister, who is none other than the indomitable Charlotte Pitt. Together, Charlotte and her husband, police inspector Thomas Pitt, take on the seemingly irreproachable, upper-crust March clan and uncover an insidious web of corruption and depravity that leads them from the elegant Crescent town house to the hideous London slums, and from genteel society to murder—again.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Perry's Victorian sleuths Inspector Thomas Pitt and his redoubtable wife Charlotte returnafter Death in the Devil's Acre and Bluegate Fieldsto poke holes in the stiff fabric of London's high society. While Thomas works on a case involving a murdered woman whose body has been dismembered and left in packages around the city, Charlotte's brother-in-law George is poisoned at the home of his cousin's family on Cardington Crescent. George had been suffering an infatuation for his cousin's wife Sybilla, and the family would like to squelch the suggestion of scandal by leaving the crime unsolved, allowing their circle to believe the poison was administered by his wife Emily Charlotte's sister in a fit of jealousy. Charlotte arrives at Cardington Crescent to clear Emily's name and while she's there, Sybilla is also murdered, strangled with her own long, lovely hair. Thomas and Charlotte work at the mysteries, each cutting through layers of class structure to arrive at the same sordid point, where incest and child neglect intersect. Perry brings the era to life not just by period detail, but with sure-handed characterization and compelling, timeless plot.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“[In Cardington Crescent] Perry brings the era to life not just by period detail, but with sure-handed characterization and compelling, timeless plot.” —Publishers Weekly

 

“[Cardington Crescent is] a detailed period puzzler suffused with atmosphere, emotion, and suspense!” —Booklist

 

“When Anne Perry puts Thomas and Charlotte Pitt on the case, we are in exemplary Victorian company.” —The New York Times

 

“Few mystery writers this side of Arthur Conan Doyle can evoke Victorian London with such relish for detail and mood.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

 

“Perry combines murder with a profile of the morals and manners of Victorian society . . . Murder fans who prefer their crimes with a touch of class should heat some scones and nestle back for the afternoon.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett Books (September 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449447758
• ISBN-13: 978-0449447758
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,479,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including Dark Assassin and The Shifting Tide, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including The Cater Street Hangman, Calandar Square, Buckingham Palace Gardens and Long Spoon Lane. She is also the author of the World War I novels No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, and We Shall Not Sleep, as well as six holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Grace. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ellison family's bad luck continues..., May 26, 2000

By 

drdebs (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cardington Crescent (Mass Market Paperback)

In the first mystery in the Pitt series, the Ellison family lost a daughter to the Cater Street Hangman. Since that time friends have suffered unspeakable tragedies, and now Emily Ellison March, Lady Ashworth, is suspected of murdering her husband George by putting belladonna in his morning coffee. Families with this kind of luck need to have someone married to a police detective!

If you are reading the stories chronologically, you will have followed the relationship of George and Emily through several novels. While I was initially sad to think his good-natured presence would be missing from future stories, I have to confess that there was little spark between the two. Maybe a change of pace is what Emily (and Perry's loyal readers?) need.

Charlotte (Emily's sister) and Thomas Pitt continue to develop as characters and sleuths in this story. Charlotte is even beginning to learn a bit of judicious caution and investigative skills! While the solution to the mystery was not entirely surprising, the twists and turns of the plot take the reader into some interesting and unforgettable aspects of late Victorian England. I highly recommend this book, and even if this is the first one you read you will enjoy getting to know the characters.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Perry winner, January 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Cardington Crescent (Mass Market Paperback)

George March, Lord Ashworth, married Emily Ellison, Charlotte Pitt's sister. While the Ashworths are visiting his extended family, he dies from poison in his morning coffee. As he was the only one in the family who drank coffee, it obviously wasn't an accidental death. The Marches are ready to close ranks against Emily, who had been seething at George over his gratuitous attention toward a cousin's wife at the opera the night before. As far as they're concerned, she's just a woman scorned, and an outsider--so better she hang than one of them. But do you think Charlotte will stand for that for one minute? Not a chance. . . The Marches are what 100 years later we refer to as a dysfunctional family. Some things never change. . .have fun reading

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review or Plot Summary?, December 15, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Cardington Crescent (Mass Market Paperback)

The customer "reviews" of this book are plot summaries which will spoil a potential reader's enjoyment. This is the best Anne Perry I've read so far (I've read about ten.) As usual, it exposes Victorian crimes against the poor and rebellion against one's own class by a few of the wealthy. But, in addition, Perry this time crafts several middle of the night, suspenseful horror scenes.

I'm often let down by Perry's endings. Not enough analysis/explanation is provided, and only the principals are allowed to react to the denouement.

I would like to see a chronological listing of her books. If you read them out of order, too much about earlier happenings is revealed. I knew, for example, that ____ could not have been the murderer in this book because he is alive and well in a LATER book which I had already read. Also, another character's death (from an earlier book) is referred to repeatedly.

I still love the Victorian settings and a glimpse into the rigid lifestyle and the grinding poverty of that time.