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After a less-than-impressive outing with the more-turgid-than-tense
Half Moon Street, Anne Perry is back on familiar--and entertaining-- turf with
The Whitechapel Conspiracy. As if apologizing for their last efforts, the whole Victorian crew seems thankfully less concerned with respecting social mores than with ratcheting up the pressure in a nicely paced political-conspiracy potboiler.
For Inspector Thomas Pitt, doing one's job can have unpleasant consequences. When his testimony sends distinguished soldier John Adinett to the gallows for the murder of Martin Fetters, traveler and antiquarian, Adinett's friends (members of the Inner Circle, "those men who had secret loyalties which superseded every other honor or pledge") ensure that Pitt loses his command of the Bow Street station. He is forced to leave his family and take up an undercover existence in the slum district of Spitalfields, chasing anarchists (though he feels he might as well be chasing his own tail). But when his wife, Charlotte, their maid, Gracie, and her would-be suitor, Sergeant Tellman, apply themselves to the task of restoring Pitt's good name, they uncover an anarchist's conspiracy that dwarfs even Guy Fawkes's Gunpowder Plot. The secrets and lies of respected men lurking in the halls of power, who will stop at nothing short of abolishing the monarchy, form the backdrop for the trio's frantic investigations. To top everything off, Perry throws in a marvelously effective subplot--but to divulge how Jack the Ripper figures into the narrative would be to spoil a highly entertaining read.
The novel has its flaws; Charlotte's great-aunt Vespasia seems less the dynamic character she has been throughout the series than a mouthpiece of mourning for the waves of change. Yes, the reader is tempted to say, the potential downfall of the British monarchy would no doubt be painful and unspeakably unsettling for those who respect Victoria and her forebears--but must one natter endlessly on about it? Better to let the whole shebang go gracefully into that good night. No fears for contemporary Victorian-philes, though; with Thomas and Charlotte around, who could doubt that the monarchy will live to fight another day? --Kelly Flynn
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
instance, the man sent to the gallows is a member of the Inner Circle, "those men who had secret loyalties which superseded every other honor or pledge." And, as a result, Edgar Award winner Perry's perennial Victorian hero, Detective Thomas Pitt, finds himself being transferred away from his wife and home and his command of the Bow Street station to Spitalfields, a remote London slum. Meanwhile, Pitt's wife, Charlotte, their colorful and cocky cockney housekeeper, Gracie, and her beau, Sergeant Tellman, take on the task of uncovering the conspiracy that has tarnished Pitt's name. Like Pitt, they unearth more than they expect. It seems that the Inner Circle's clandestine behavior can be traced all the way back to the gruesome crimes of Jack the Ripper, and the stakes are so high that the entire fate of the British way of life is threatened as the truth is unraveled. McCallum's expertly suspenseful reading will keep listeners glued to their headphones as he reveals the frighteningly full extent of the Inner Circle's influence and evil. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 6, 2000).
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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de Anne Perry
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