Brunswick Gardens (Mass Market Paperback)

As he enters deeper into the household, he discovers that he has crossed paths with his brother-in-law Dominic Cord - a man Charlotte, Pitt's wife, was infatuated with as a teenager and young woman. His return to their life rekindles Charlotte's thoughts of him and also restokes Pitt's resentment towards him. The fact that he is a suspect makes it harder for Pitt to remain purely objective because of the inner resentment he feels against Dominic. This situation makes Pitt more human and believeable. If I met a man in the course of my work, who was once the object of my wife's adoration, I'd have a hard time staying neutral and not resenting the hell out of him too. Perry catches this emotional load that Pitt has to bear exactly right.

Throughout the book, emotions are barely under the surface. From Charlotte's renewed attention to Dominic, Pitt's resentment of Dominic and Charlotte, religious beliefs etc., there is an current that is almost palpable and real. Where these emotions lead is surprising as well as sad. In one case, these is the start of an affection that can only be returned obliquely and indirectly, not as it should be. While Tellman and Gracie continue thier somewhat eccentric courtship - neither has recognized thier true feelings for the other or if they have, they are reluctant to admit them, to themselves and to each other.

This is a book that I found on par with Perry's other writings. This gives us a new developement of Pitt's charecter - we see his emotions and his own insecurities quite vividly. I think it goes a long way to giving background and depth to the relationship of Charlotte and Thomas, making them more believeable as people. I highly recommend this book to all Perry fans.

This is a solve-a-murder mystery, but it's kept interesting by a succession of seemingly contradictory clues and by the possibility of multiple culprits. It's also quite a psychodrama; at times it reminds me of Elizabeth George's work, as one ends up trapped in a room with a number of vocally unpleasant people. A difficult young woman has died, and nearly everyone in the house at the time had some reason to dislike her. Meanwhile, because the primary suspect is a clergyman, the local bishop puts pressure on the police to hush the matter up. The conclusion is clever, neither out-of-left-field nor obvious until the very end.

My essential problem with this book was the anachronistic beliefs and thought patterns its characters revealed. The dead woman, Unity Bellwood, is a feminist, and that's not at all anachronistic; the book is set during a period of agitation for female suffrage. But the way she and her friends express themselves is very much in terms of personal development, of being allowed to "be themselves". Those are very late-20th-century concepts. In addition, when the curate Dominic talks to grieving or troubled people, he may as well be quoting from a modern self-help book; his lines don't have a nineteenth-century ring at all.

Most readers probably will not notice the anachronisms, and despite a certain lack of physical action common to many of Perry's books, this is a generally entertaining novel.

While I didn't think that this was one of her best works, I did feel that Perry was trying to do something different with regards to involving one of the prime suspects in the actual sleuthing process (in this case, Charlotte's widower brother-in-law, Dominic Corde). As I read the book, I felt that Corde, in some ways, made more progress than Pitt. It does make a sort of sense though, since Corde lived in the same house as Bellwood.

I was disappointed that Perry's more interesting supporting characters, Great-Aunt Vespasia and Charlotte's mother, Caroline, barely get a mention. Charlotte's Grandmama only got one good scene, and she is great for comedic relief. I wish Perry could have somehow involved these ladies more in her exploration of how feminism affected them personally. That could have been really interesting.

Still, kudos to Perry for trying something different. Wish it could have been better.