Showing results by author "Anne Perry" in All Categories

The plaintiffs in a sensational breach of promise suit are wealthy social climbers Barton and Delphine Lambert, suing on behalf of their beautiful daughter, Zillah. The defendant is Zillah's alleged fiancé, brilliant young architect Killian Melville, who adamantly declares that he will not, cannot, marry her. Not even to his counsel, distinguished barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone, will Killian explain his rejection of rich and charming Zillah.

Arriving in Constantinople in 1273, Anna Zarides vows to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill a nobleman. Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, maneuvering close to the key players involved in her brother’s fate, including Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Giuliano Dandolo, a ship’s captain conflicted by his growing feelings for Anastasius.

It's a freezing winter day in London, 1895, when two young girls have a chance meeting. The pair turn out to have much in common: both are poor, both are parentless. But Minnie Maude, only eight, has even worse problems: the uncle with whom she lived has just been murdered, and if that's not enough, the family's donkey has run away. Her new friend Gracie, all of 13, feels obliged to help her, and so the girls team up to solve the mystery - and find Charlie the donkey.

In Corridors of the Night, nurse Hester Monk and her husband, William, commander of the Thames River Police, do desperate battle with two obsessed scientists who, in the name of healing, have turned to homicide. The monomaniacal Rand brothers - Magnus, a cunning doctor, and Hamilton, a genius chemist - are utterly ruthless in their pursuit of a cure for the fatal "white-blood disease".

In Blind Justice, mystery abounds in London as Hester Monk, wife of Thames River Police Commander William Monk, questions Abel Taft - a charismatic preacher accused of extortion. Taft appears guilty as sin, but his trial explodes when a star witness drops a bombshell that has the Monks scrambling to save their dear friend Oliver Rathbone.

The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet investigator William Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence.

In this superbly accomplished new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt adventure, Anne Perry takes us beneath the glittering surface of wealthy Victorian society into a nightmare world of fear and intimidation, where women are too often blamed for the violent attacks against them, and powerful men take what they want, leaving others to pay the price. The horrifying rape and apparent suicide of Catherine Quixwood, wife of a wealthy merchant banker, falls outside the new jurisdiction of Special Branch head Thomas Pitt, but so pervasively offensive are the rumors about the victim that Pitt quietly takes a hand in the investigation.

When Victor Narraway, Thomas Pitt's close friend and former boss, and his new wife, Lady Vespasia, travel to Jerusalem for a Christmas holiday, Vespasia cannot shake the feeling that they are being watched. Then, an old man leaves a mysterious envelope for Narraway - and is murdered soon after. But it is only when the couple is ambushed the following morning that they realize they are in grave danger.

The 12th mystery in the beloved Inspector and Charlotte Pitt Victorian mystery series, now a hardcover success. When a moneylender named William Weems is murdered, there is discreet rejoicing among those whose meager earnings he devoured. But the plot thickens when Inspector Pitt finds a list of London’s distinguished gentlemen in Weems’ office.

In her twentieth William Monk mystery, she brings us to London's grand Mayfair mansions, where the arrogant masters of the Western world hold sway - and to the teeming Thames waterfront, where one summer afternoon, Monk witnesses the horrifying explosion of the pleasure boat Princess Mary, which takes nearly two hundred of the merrymakers on board to their deaths. The tragedy is no accident.

When the distinguished Mr. Justice Stafford dies of opium poisoning, his shocking demise resurrects one of the most sensational cases ever to inflame England: the murder five years before of Kingsley Blaine, whose body was found crucified in Farriers Lane. Amid the public hysteria for revenge, the police had arrested a Jewish actor who was soon condemned to hang.

On a London riverbank, when the body of small-time crook Mickey Parfitt washes up with the tide, no one grieves. But William Monk, commander of the River Police, is puzzled by the murder weapon: an elegant scarf whose original owner was obviously a man of substance.

As Charlotte Pitt's grandmother Mariah Ellison finds herself investigating a long-unsolved slaying, it becomes clear that grappling with intrigue and foul play runs in the family. A festive Christmas package left on Mariah's doorstep contains an ominous present, sparking memories of a 20-year-old murder that shattered her friendship with the victim's widow. Though the gift is a bitter reminder of that tragic time, in the spirit of the season Mariah travels to Surrey in hopes of reconciling with her estranged friend and solving the crime that drove them apart.

Commander William Monk has learned to live with the fact that he cannot remember the events of his life prior to a horrific carriage accident years ago. But when a ghost from his past, a man he has no recollection of, attempts to frame him for a series of murders, he must rely on the help of his wife, Hester, and his close friend, Oliver Rathbone, in order to free himself - from both the charges and the demons that have haunted him since the accident.

Detective John Hooper, William Monk's right-hand man at the Thames River Police, is blissfully happy in his new marriage to Celia, the cousin of a victim in one of the river police's recent murder cases. Celia wants the same happiness for her good friend Clementine, who's just announced her engagement to Seth Marlowe, a fellow member of her church. Christmas is nearing, and this should be extra cause for celebration, but when Marlowe begins receiving threatening letters about his first wife's death, it becomes clear that he is far from the devout man Clementine thought he was.

Not far from the sprawling grounds of Wyndham Hall, longtime MI6 agent John Repton's body is found with a bullet hole through the heart. The corpse's proximity to the estate sends ripples of concern through the intelligence community: Repton was killed while surveilling the members of a household with alleged ties to fascists—who threaten the security of the country as Hitler's control spreads across Europe. Elena Standish is assigned the case since she has a connection to the Wyndham family; Lady Wyndham's brother is courting Elena's older sister Margot.

On a family trip to Washington, DC, Elena Standish is delighted to visit her mother's parents for their anniversary and celebrate with influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent scientist. Even Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt will attend the party. But the event comes to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Elena realizes that Lila had been trying to tell her something, and when a call from Peter Lucas back home at MI6 confirms that Lila was a British spy, Elena pairs with the American secret service....

Acclaimed author Anne Perry delivers another installment of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series. Two dead bodies have been discovered, both similarly mutilated. As Inspector Thomas Pitt examines one body, he recognizes the man from a previous case. With the help of his perceptive wife Charlotte, Thomas intends to solve this gruesome crime.

A century ago, Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution rocked the civilized world, and the outraged Anglican church went on the warpath against it. In a mansion in London's affluent Brunswick Gardens, the battle is intense, as that most respected clergyman, the Reverend Ramsay Parmenter, is boldly challenged by his beautiful assistant, Unity Bellwood - a "new woman" whose feminism and aggressive Darwinism he finds appalling.

The gathering has the appearance of a smart autumn house party - stunning women and powerful men enjoying a few days of leisurely pleasure in a setting of exquisite beauty. In fact, the guests are Irish Protestants and Catholics gathered in a reluctant parley over home rule for Ireland, a problem that has plagued the British Isles since the reign of Elizabeth I. When the meeting's moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, the negotations seemed doomed.