Triple Jeopardy by Anne Perry

Triple Jeopardy: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry --- 301 pages

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.

Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry

Twenty-One Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry --- 303 pages

Best selling historical mystery writer Anne Perry is best known for her two mystery series set in Victorian England, the William Monk mysteries and the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries.   After thirty-two books appearing over  almost forty years, the Pitts made their final, triumphant appearance in Murder on the Serpentine (2017), in which Pitt, head of Britain's Special Branch, is knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to Crown and Country.

This year the indefatigable Perry debuts a new series, set ten years on in 1910. The old Queen is dead, and the Edwardian Era is underway. Thomas and Charlotte's son Daniel, is a newly minted barrister starting on the ground floor of one of London's most prominent law practices. We meet Daniel in the throes of defending his first serious criminal case. A former police officer, who once worked for Thomas Pitt and now works as a private inquiry agent, stands accused of murdering a man who owed him a substantial sum of money. All the evidence seems to point to Roman Blackwell's guilt, and one witness, Oscar Park, has been particularly damaging in his testimony.

Acting on a hunch, Daniel enlists the help of an expert witness to prove his client's innocence.  And just in time, for he is urgently summoned to assist in another, much more serious case in which a writer of salacious biographies of the rich and/or powerful stands accused of the murder of his wife and the disfigurement of her corpse. Russell Graves insists he is innocent, but he is an arrogant and abrasive man who does nothing to advance his cause. The jury finds him guilty, and he i sentenced to be hanged in just twenty-one days --- unless his lawyers can find legal grounds or new evidence to mount an appeal.

The more Daniel has to do with Graves, the more he dislikes the man; his sympathies are all for the victim, Graves' wife Ebony, and two surviving children, Sarah and Arthur. Graves insists that he's been framed by powerful enemies seeking to derail the publication of his new book, in which he claims to expose corruption and abuse of power at the highest levels of government.

Daniel discovers that Graves' book defames the character of two people close to his family, as well as his own father, Sir Thomas; and destroys the reputation of Special Branch. Daniel also learns that Graves physically abused his wife, children and servants for years. He's sorely tempted to let Graves hang but --- he's not convinced that Graves is guilty of murdering his wife. Can Daniel prevent Graves from hanging for a murder he did not commit, yet make sure he's punished for his actual crimes --- and guarantee that his malicious book never sees the light of day?

Click HERE to see the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to see the review from Kirkus Reviews.