Customer Reviews

Farriers' Lane: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel

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Inspector Thomas Pitt is enjoying a rare evening at the theater with his wife and mother-in-law when a man in a nearby box falls ill. When Pitt goes to offer his help, he can do little more than watch as an appeals court justice falls into a coma and then quickly dies. There is nothing Pitt or anyone else, including Justice Stafford's colleague Justice Livesay - who has also come to offer assistance - can do. The next day Pitt finds himself assigned to investigate the death, which is definitely a murder. Stafford has died from opium poisoning, and Pitt soon learns that the justice had been questioning all the witnesses to a murder case from five years earlier. For that murder, a man was convicted and executed. But the man's sister has maintained his innocence, and Pitt wonders if Justice Stafford was finally convinced to re-open the case even though it was duly appealed and ruled upon.

As usual, author Perry does a superb job of depicting Victorian London from the viewpoints of several different social classes. Also as usual, the prejudices of that era drive the book's plot. Charlotte, Inspector Pitt's more highly born wife, involves herself in the investigation to excellent effect; and so, in a lesser way, does their maid, Gracie. One of the things I enjoy most about this series is the way its continuing characters (a substantial cast of them) grow and develop from book to book. This installment is particularly effective in that respect, as Charlotte's mother - widowed Caroline Ellison - does the unthinkable. Not only does she fall in love, at past 50 years old; she does so with a younger man. An actor, and - worst of all - a Jew.

A terrific read!

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

A good plot and a number of interesting and appealing characters to get the reader involved in another Anne Perry: Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novel. The snapshots of the London period are engaging, from clothes, manners, social expectations of the classes, to food and drink. Perry paints a picture of the time and situation that will hold you until the ending.