This is the second book in Anne Perry's new mystery series featuring Daniel Pitt, the now grown-up son of Sir Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, the sleuths in Perry's 32-volume Victorian crime series which began with The Cater Street Hangman and ended triumphantly with Murder on the Serpentine. The Daniel Pitt books are set in Edwardian England, in the years leading up to the Great War, a period of deceptive calm before the coming tsunami of revolution and war.
Daniel's sister, Jemima, and her Irish-American husband, Patrick Flannery, a police officer in Washington D.C., have arrived in England with their two small children, for a family visit. It's the first time Daniel has met Patrick; he wasn't able to travel to America for Jemima's wedding four years ago. But Patrick is combining this family visit with police business. A young British diplomat claimed diplomatic immunity and came back to England to avoid being charged with assault and theft against the daughter of a prominent Washington family. Patrick says there's now evidence that the diplomat, Philip Sidney, also embezzled money from the Embassy during his time in Washington. Patrick wants Sidney tried for the embezzlement, so that the evidence related to the assault and theft can be raised during the trial as further proof of his bad character.
Daniel is repulsed by Sidney's crimes but reluctant to participate since his part would be to insinuate himself into Sidney's defense team to ensure the appearance of a fair trial but really to guarantee that Sidney is punished for all his despicable acts. But when word arrives that the man who gathered the evidence of the embezzlement has been identified as the person who pawned the necklace stolen during the assault, and has now gone missing, Daniel begins to have his doubts.
Sidney continues to claim he is innocent of all these charges, and Daniel wonders why a young man who has led an ordinary and blameless life should so abruptly reveal a venal and criminal nature. When the missing man in Washington is found dead of a gunshot to the back of the head and floating in the Potomac River --- and evidence establishes he was murdered after Sidney's boat sailed for home --- Daniel and Patrick are both mystified. Daniel consults Miriam fford Croft, the brilliant daughter of his Head of Chambers, a trained and qualified forensic pathologist unable to practice her profession due to the misogynistic conventions of that time. It is Miriam who points out the obvious: someone is trying to silence this young man. What does he know that someone is so desperate to hide?
Another one of Perry's intricate blends of character development and courtroom drama with historical exposition. But to really enjoy these books you need to start at the beginning of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt's saga, and then go on to Daniel.
Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.
Click HERE to read the review from the Criminal Element web site.
Click HERE to watch Anne Perry discussing Triple Jeopardy at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Youtube.
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