Multiple Murder Mystery with Gritty Topics

This was an interesting read, but the abrupt ending itself is a bit of an unsolved mystery. It has a little Jack the Ripper, a tad darker version of Annie's Miss Hannigan, and mash up of Clue with a much darker version of Pride and Prejudice. In all, it was entertaining, shocking and sad. I would prefer a more expanded and explained ending, however, as it's left to the reader's interpretation about a key element and I don't enjoy those fast endings.

I had missed this book when reading the series so read it last. Even though I knew certain things from later books, it was still fun to read. At the same time it's sad to know that, with the death of author Anne Perry, there will be no more of this series by her.

Slowly Paced

I like the way Anne Perry sends one on a chase to find the killer. Several times, when it appears you have solved the mystery, clues are given that leads one away...then back...then away.

Ladies and gentlemen, you apologize for taking so long to write a review. Today we will try to write two, although I have many overdue reviews. I hadn't written one for several weeks and my friend Ana Estelwen has stung me with hers, which are very good. She took the opportunity to recommend that you follow her. I really like that I commented on my reviews and I also enjoy commenting on his readings and his book reviews.
If you want to know an interesting anecdote about this novel, it is that I bought it a year ago and I lost it and, it turns out, I had it with me all the time. When I met her again this week despite my commitments I decided to make room for her in my schedule and read her because Anne Perry is a writer that I like a lot. It will be known previously that other novels by Anne Perry had already been read and, more than the couple formed by Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. However, despite the doubts that have been had with this novel, I am going to suspend this one for several reasons.
The literary quality is acceptable, but there are things that I have not liked. First of all, I enjoy reading the novels of William Monk, Hester and, the most interesting character, that of the lawyer and lawyer Sir. Oliver Rathbone https://www.goodreads.com/series/4093.... It's a bit like with the American John Dickson Carr John Dickson Carr that I like his Chestertonian G.K. Chesterton detective Gideon Fell https://www.goodreads.com/series/4248... than the more Churchillian Winston Churchill Sir. Henry Merrivale https://www.goodreads.com/series/4187... or, Gaunt or, Henri Bencolin https://www.goodreads.com/series/4269.... In the detective novel, one of the keys is that the detective, apart from fascinating you, likes him or empathizes with him in some way. Without disliking the Pitt marriage, I like the Monk marriage better. Despite reading "The Whitechapel Conspiracy" The Whitechapel Conspiracy (because of the theme) I must confess that I liked William Monk's novels more than Pitt's. I wonder why is it the saga of Thomas Pitt when almost always the one who solves the crimes is his wife? Let's see, it's normal for the police to be helped by the official detective. That's what Sherlock Holmes https://www.goodreads.com/series/4999..., Hercule Poirot https://www.goodreads.com/series/5113... or, Father Brown https://www.goodreads.com/series/5560... and most detective fiction detectives do. I also don't think it's a bad thing that the detective I failed happened to Sherlock Holmes in "Scandal in Bohemia" A Scandal in Bohemia - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story or, to Roger Sheringham https://www.goodreads.com/series/8531... (one of the fictional detectives created by Anthony Berkeley in the case of "The Poisoned Chocolates"The Poisoned Chocolates Case Ambrose Chitterwick https://www.goodreads.com/series/1555... has to amend the plan). But I don't like that it's Charlotte who solves his crimes and that I left the detective (presumably the main one) like an idiot. It's not because I'm opposed to there being fictional female detectives, we have Vicky from the sleuths of the transition of my friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca Manuel Alfonseca https://www.goodreads.com/series/1836... who also often steals the page from Gonzalo, her husband (generating a healthy rivalry in the couple), "Molly, Scotland Yard agent" from the Baroness of Orczy Lady Molly Of Scotland Yard , to Hildegarde Withers of Stuart Palmer https://www.goodreads.com/series/6335... or, to Miss. Marple https://www.goodreads.com/series/5179... . However, I like the distribution of tasks of the trio of characters in William Monk's cycle (by the same author) more than Thomas and Charlotte Pitt do (detective marriages we have the Tuppence https://www.goodreads.com/series/2331... and the Charles The Thin Man created by Agatha Christie and Dashiell Hammett respectively). I understand that due to his social background Thomas Pitt cannot pierce the wall of prejudice and social snobbery of Victorian society and that his wife, who is of a higher extraction, gets into the noble salons as a field agent. I understand that, but give something more honorable to your detective. The humiliation that Thomas Pitt suffers does not reach that of "Paragon Walk" Paragon Walk at least in this novel he does something (the Charabelle Mapes affair).

The second thing I didn't like about this plot is that here Perry offers us a repetition of what has happened in other novels of his. My mechanism or my pattern of behavior is this. Generally I usually raise my hand with the first novel that is read to an author and I tend to be more demanding as they are read more. This one seems better than "Paragon Walk", but there are songs that I didn't like and, here I have seen themes and plots already repeated. It's not as topical or controversial as "Defend and Betray"1241091], but I think that of all the novels that have been read to Anne Perry this is the bitter and saddest of all. That doesn't start badly with Thomas Pitt finding a part of a woman's body and Charlotte's sister Emily is staying with some of her husband's relatives. Having a lot of problems because Emily's husband, George, goes back to his old ways and flirts with the wife of the son of the host of the house (a painter named William as the Goldophin of "Resurrection Row" Resurrection Row). In this case George Answorth is courting (because I think he doesn't go beyond that) with Sybilla March. However, this will cause Emily (as in other books) to launch a crusade to get her husband back. Which will cause a very funny anecdote that will divide the March clan. In reality, Eustace March, the pater familias, has more children (seven daughters and all married. In fact, his wife Olivia died due to the high number of births she has suffered. The problem of today's world is precisely the opposite. An aging of the population, because there is not the number required to ensure the continuity of the human species. Due to anti-natalist measures promoted by globalist millionaires with neo-Malthusian tendencies), Eustace is home to the firstborn William who is a painter, his wife, Tassie (the youngest of the clan and who resembles Vespasia Cumming Gould) and Eustace's mother Lavinia, who live in the mansion.

In this novel we see something similar to "Rigorous Mourning" A Dangerous Mourning, a faithful patriarch attached to traditions and with an excessive zeal for family honor (hypertrophy of honor). This novel has practically reminded me of a Japanese novel if instead of setting it in Victorian England we had set it in feudal Japan of the Sengoku period, or Tokugawa would also have been plausible, or convincing due to the subject matter it deals with. It could almost be one of the novels published by the Spanish publisher @quaterni and it would not have been out of place in its catalogue.

Now, it has been said that this has been one of the most bitter novels in the Anne Perry saga and this is because one of the victims is one of the characters that have appeared in previous novels. That is to say that it belongs to the repertoire of the usual characters of the cycle of Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Pitt. It is true that George is one of the secondary characters and no one likes him precisely because of his frivolous and selfish nature and, because he is too light of helmets (casquivana would be the right word. More vulgar would be that of flirt or, play boy). It is not the first time that this character flirts with another female character. This death by poisoning may not leave Emily, Charlotte, and Thomas Pitt indifferent, but the reader does. Because no one values George or appreciates him because of his actions and his character and the virtues that the characters in the book see in him go unnoticed by Anne Perry's readers. If he had felt anything for Sybilla, he could still be pitied or excused (even if this was a vulgar adultery. It doesn't even come to that, but to a flirt, a roll). In fact, when the reading of this novel is finished, the figure of George is not exactly reinforced, but on the contrary his figure is even more discredited because he refused to help a person who needed his mercy.

Another thing that has been irritating to me has been the reactionary and caveman figure of Eustace March (sometimes stupid like when they try to convince him and Lavinia that there has been a murder. Wondering Forrest Gump's question Forrest Gump, if they are as stupid as they appear to be or, do they do it because they are more complicated than it seems). Eustace March's attitude is so extreme that you don't believe it, although there must have been something of that in Victorian England. I understand that Perry is implacable with the arbitrariness and injustices of the perfidious Albion. I will not be the one to defend a country that approved the Maitland plan to put an end to Spain and its overseas territories (not colonies, we leave that to predatory empires). I think that more than the criticism of machismo and the toxic virility of Eustace March, I am much more moved by the criticism of the abandoned and poor children that were in the other subplot. I mean, although the main plot is that of the murders, the Cardington Crescent murders are the others that I really liked the most. I mean the subplot of Tassie (Anastasia), like the dismembered corpse at the beginning are infinitely more interesting than the main plot. It has not been very difficult to find out who was guilty of the murders either. The reader will discover it as soon as he is minimally skilled. There are times when, for example, the solution was discovered, such as in "His Brother Cain" Cain His Brother (since I read something similar a long time ago), but the intrigue was so interesting that the author was forgiven for that slight inconvenience.

I really liked this installment of Charlotte & Thomas but there was a section of the book that dragged for me and subsequently drags it down from 4 stars to 3 for this reader. In the beginning the POV is Emily's (Charlotte's sister) and even though not very much was happening I was really drawn into the drama. Then a murder happens and Charlotte and Thomas join us with their POV's. During this portion of the novel we hear basically the same things about the short list of suspects but 3x through each POV- I could have done without reading the same thoughts from all 3 people.

My favourite in this series so far. Suspenseful, tragic and fast-paced. The idea of Charlotte an d Emily holed up in a stuffy and unpleasant home with a murderer makes this a very enjoyable read that goes much too quickly.

The twists are clever to combine the murders.
Society does get away with murder.
Very weak on relationship development between Charlotte and Thomas. But perhaps sufficient for the time they were written.

This book was going along very well, but had an extremely disappointing ending. 2.5 stars.

The writing is excellent, as usual. It's a plot line I find difficulty with in this book. It seems one must balance the quality of the story with the darkness of the murders, when one reads mysteries. I have quit other series when they have become too dark, and dwelt too much on horrors, and that is not necessarily the case here...Is it a matter of too glib an attitude toward death? Perhaps, but we must accept a certain lightness of attitude toward the deaths of fictional characters, or we must put the genre aside.
I will gladly continue reading this series, but my emotions have given me first warning (perhaps second, as I may have purposefully ignored a damaging blow in the very first book of the series when tragedy strikes a close relative) and I will handle these stories with a careful eye to the danger of becoming too dark and negative. That may appeal to some readers, but not to this reader.

As book #8 in the the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, Cardington Crescent is the best so far for me. I did find the beginning just a bit slow but the suspense just kept building until the very end. Parts of a dismembered woman are found throughout an area of modest means. Then Charlotte's brother-in-law, George, has been poisoned in his relative's home. Emily is being suspected by the patriarch and his mother as the prime suspect for she had 'married up' in their opinion. For Inspector Thomas Pitt, he doesn't expect to be able to solve the first murder, but he does his best, along with Charlotte, to prove Emily's innocence.

The mindset of the upper crust of Victorian society was incredibly conveyed in this book. You could just feel the suffocating strictures and the hypocritical actions of all. It is amazing the secrets harbored within an individual let alone a family. As Charlotte stated "We never do know anyone else completely. And nor should we - it would be an intrusion. And I daresay, at times it would be painful and destructive. And perhaps boring. How long would you stay in love with someone you could look through like glass, and see everything? One has to have mystery somewhere ahead left to explore, or why go on?"

I have now come to expect rather abrupt endings once the crime has been solved. It is not necessarily in a way we would expect, and I certainly didn't see it this time. But the scandal of it all would be contained but at such a price.

I really love Anne Perry's descriptions of Victorian London and society. She really hits the nail on the head. This book was different to the others in the series since the murder was much closer to home.
Emily loses her husband, George. And, she is suspected of having killed him. That in itself was a good plot.
There are two reasons I did not give 5-stars.
1. There were too many pages devoted to people pondering over the murder - it was quite repetitive. I did not really need to hear Pitt, Charlotte and Emily wonder who the killer is and go through the same list of suspects and motives at different times in the story.
2. George's murderer was a surprise because I could not reconcile with the motive given... it just did not carry enough weight with me (I don't want to reveal who it is!)

Nevertheless, a good read for lovers of historical fiction / crime

Though not the first of Perry's Thomas Pitt novels, it was the first for me. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the Victorian setting. Though camping, I wished I had internet access to look up some of the words that were surely from that era alone. The mystery itself was intriguing, and the characters were interesting, whether likable or detestable. The final solution to the main mystery (at Cardington Crescent itself) was a bit unsatisfying, and not so plausible to me, while the initial, more public, and quite grisly murder was solved quite satisfactorily.