Bethlehem Road by Anne Perry

I reread this book recently and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. It is one of Anne Perry's Inspector Pitt series and it deals with the police investigation into the murder of three members of parliament on Westminster Bridge. Each man was found with his throat cut and tied to a lamp post and in each case the murderer had been able to vanish unnoticed from the scene laving the police struggling to find a motive. The general feeling was that it must be an anarchist plot or perhaps the work of a mad man, as the plot developed a tragic and deeply personal motive was revealed.

Anne Perry tackles very uncomfortable issues in her books and she vividly describes the social issues of the time. This book developed my understanding the injustice of the time regarding the treatment of women and for the first time I understood that the fight for women's suffrage was about far more than just getting the vote. It is a haunting story and the issues it raised will not easily be forgotten.

Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry

Anne Perry is one of my favourite authors, and I am really looking forward to getting her new book Buckingham Palace Gardens. I have already written about her book Whited Sepulchres which is part of the William Monk series of books. She has another series based on police officer Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte, who live in Victorian England and Buckingham Palace Gardens is the latest book in that series. I love her books because you really get a sense of what life was like then, she is very good at the small details that do so much to set the scene and add to our understanding of the characters. I think she creates very strong and believable female characters and her writing has certainly made me understand how little power women of that time had to control their own lives and those of their children. My favourite characters are Great Aunt Vespasia and the Pitt's maid Gracie, Charlotte's grandmother is not an endearing character but she is very well written, I am sure I have met her in another time and another place!

It is hard to choose a favourite from the Thomas Pitt series of books because I have enjoyed them all, so I have chosen just one to write about in more detail.

Belgrave Square by Anne Perry
I think the style of writing seems a bit prim at first, but you get used to it and you realise that it conveys a sense of the times, there is a good plot to carry you along. This book is set the year after Jack the Ripper made his mark on London. A moneylender is found dead in the back streets, he has been shot with unconventional ammunition. This confusing case leads Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte, his wife, to uncover secret societies and corruption in the highest places. The very poor are being exploited and powerful people are keen to ensure that the identities of slum landlords remain hidden. This book uncovers a powerful love story that has been a closely guarded secret for many years. It is well worth the read and the characters are well drawn but perhaps just a little 'larger than life'

Whited Sepulchres by Anne Perry

This was another book that I found this book by accident and it turned out to be really good. Anne Perry has become one of my favourite authors, she tackles some challenging issues and her books are consistently good, but this is still one of my favourites.

A brilliant architect called Killian Melville has to depend on Sir Oliver Rathbone to represent him when he is charged with "breach of promise" to marry Zillah. Rathbone. Zillah seems to be a most suitable choice, but Melville insists that he did not ask her to marry him and he is not willing to marry. He will not do anything to hurt or shame Zillah even if it is the only way to save himself. There is a baffling and complex history to this case and the lives of everyone involved will be devastated by the tragic conclusion to the case. This is book about identity, about things not being as they seem and about social pressure.