The body lies reclined in a punt, clothed in a torn dress, head thrown back in a mimic of ecstasy. It is a feminine pose but the body is distinctly male. The case already reeks of scandal and the body is not even cold. Pitt is the natural choice to investigate what he soon realises is the most unnatural of killings.
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Reviews
'A splendidly plotted yarn' Publishers Weekly
Give her a good murder and a shameful social evil, and Anne Perry can write a Victorian mystery that would make Dickens' eyes pop out
Beautifully crafted
'The Troubles perfectly suit Perry's gift for rooting large-scale social conflict in the minutiae of domestic intrigue' Kirkus Reviews
Her Victorian England pulsates with life and is peopled with wonderfully memorable characters
'Perry's narrative is as statley and elegant as a royal barge on the Thames' Washington Post
The novel has a totally contemporary feel and is admirably well-written
'Master storyteller Anne Perry moves closer to Dickens as she lifts the lace curtain from Victorian society to reveal its shocking secrets' Sharyn McCrumb
'A complex plot supported by superb storytelling...and William Monk, a contender for the post of Most Original Investigator in recent fiction' Scotland on Sunday
A complex plot supported by superb storytelling
'Ms Perry fashions a Victorian story with the sophisticated characterisation and psychological suspense that are everyday tools of the contemporary writer...the result is first rate' New York Times Book Review
'Her Victorian England pulsates with life and is peopled with wonderfully memorable characters' Faye Kellerman
'[A] surpassingly excellent historical and psychologically intricate mystery' Publishers Weekly
'Beautifully crafted' Cosmopolitan
'Perry's narrative is as stately and elegant as a royal barge on the Thames...with a final courtroom confrontation that's a humdinger' Washington Post Book World
'The novel has a totally contemporary feel and is admirably well-written' Guardian
'Anne Perry continues to weave her beguiling spell, combining an adroitly plotted murder mystery and a lamentable social evil. Her Victorian mysteries have all the requisite scene-setting atmosphere and even a leavening of Dickens' social comnscience... Perry at her accomplished best' Crime Time
