Genre: Historical, Mystery
Published: 1979
Personal rating: 4/5
Yearly count: 74 (2011 Book)
While the Ellison girls were out paying calls and drinking tea like proper Victorian ladies, a maid in their household was strangled to death. The quiet and young Inspector Pitt investigates the scene and finds no one above suspicion. As his intense questioning causes many a composed facade to crumble, Pitt finds himself curiously drawn to pretty Charlotte Ellison. Yet, a romance between a society girl and so unsuitable a suitor was impossible in the midst of a murder....
I must admit, this book was not at all what I expected. I figured on a romance with a bit of murder mystery thrown in, or perhaps a gritty investigative novel told from Thomas Pitt’s point of view. It was neither. It was a cozy mystery told from the point of view of almost everyone in the Ellison family, and at no point did we find out firsthand what Thomas Pitt was thinking or doing. While that surprised me, it was a pleasant surprise and I absolutely loved the atmosphere of the book.
Anne Perry did a great job at evoking the Victorian era with its complicated manners and caste system. While Charlotte didn’t fall in love with Thomas immediately – something I liked a lot, by the way – she does eventually and for once the story doesn’t gloss over the problems such a relationship would have evoked back then. All in all this novel was great, realistic and cozy and a very good first book in a series I think I’ll quite enjoy.
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