From Publishers Weekly
The 18th case for turn-of-the-century London policeman Thomas Pitt offers Perry's guaranteed entertainment, although without the full depth of last year's Ashworth Hall. Now in command of the Bow Street station, Pitt is sent to the home of prominent vicar and scholar Ramsay Parmenter, where a young woman has died in a suspicious fall down the stairs. Unity Bellwood was as adept at irritating others as she was at her work of translating ancient texts with the reverend. Pitt faces the awkward possibility that the dead woman was pushed by Parmenter himself; by Parmenter's intense son, Mallory, who is annoying his Anglican father by studying to become a Catholic priest; or by Dominic Corde, a curate who lives in the house. Complicating issues is the fact that Dominic, the widowed husband of Pitt's wife Charlotte's dead sister, is an elegant former wastrel with whom Charlotte was once infatuated. As Pitt probes "all the little sins" of the household, he discovers secrets that several of his suspects have failed to confess about themselves and about Unity. Meanwhile Charlotte, drawn to visit Dominic, witnesses social interactions among the family group that her husband, in his official capacity, could not observe. Within this clearly drawn cast, the face of the villain begins to emerge even before Pitt is called in on a second death in the household and closes in on the crimes' solution. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Within the historical setting of Victorian England, Perry (Ashworth Hall, LJ 2/1/97) sets a new mystery in motion to be solved by the enduring Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte. Unity Bellwood, a scholar of ancient languages, is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the home of her employer, the Reverend Ramsey Parmenter. Soon, it is discovered that she was three months' pregnant. Afterward, suspicion and distrust grow among household members?Ramsey's wife, Vita; daughters Tryphena and Clarice; son Mallory; and devoted religious convert and protege Dominic Corde. The murder of Reverend Parmenter follows. Perry explores modern themes of feminism, discrimination, and free love within the well-defined strictures of Victorian mores, and her characters emerge as realistic and credible. Highly recommended for popular collections.
-?Michelle Foyt, Fairfield P.L., Ct.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
