Southampton Row, Anne Perry
Southampton Row, Anne Perry
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Southampton Row

Author: Anne Perry

Narrator: Amy Scanlon

Unabridged: 13 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/17/2024


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

In Victorian England, a divisive election is fast approaching. Passions are so enflamed that Thomas Pitt, shrewd mainstay of the London police, has been ordered not to solve a crime but to prevent a national disaster. The aristocratic Tory candidate—and Pitt’s archenemy—is Charles Voisey. The Liberal candidate is Aubrey Serracold, whose wife’s dalliance with spiritualism threatens his chances.

Indeed, she is one of the participants in a late-night séance that becomes the swan song of a stylish clairvoyant who is found brutally murdered the next morning in her house on Southampton Row. Meanwhile, Pitt’s wife, Charlotte, and their children are enjoying a country vacation—unaware that they, too, are deeply endangered by the same fanatical forces hovering over the steadfast Pitt.

“Fast moving and utterly engrossing … Perry’s Victorian novels attain the societal sweep of Trollope or Thackeray; she has absolute command over both political history and the small fascinating details of everyday life.”—Booklist, starred review

About Anne Perry

Sometimes the personal story of a particular author seems almost as intriguing as the books they write. Such is the life of British author Anne Perry (aka Juliet Marion Hulme). As a child Hulme was very ill with tuberculosis and ended up being fostered out by a family in the Caribbean. She did get better, and the family moved to a private island in New Zealand, where she describes her life as a Swiss family Robinson type existence. She became ill again and during her bouts of illness through her teen years, she missed most of her childhood education. However, her mother had prepared her by teaching her how to read and write by the time she was four. Her heart always seemed to be in writing.

At the age of 15, Juliet and her best friend plotted and killed her friend's mother. The three went for a walk in the park and Hulme dropped a stone, causing the mother to bend over to pick it up, and her friend hit her own mother on the head with a half brick. They had planned on the strike killing her, but they had to strike her 20 times before she was dead. The girls were put on trial and each served five years in prison. It is said that they never saw each other again after being released. For many years, nobody connected author Anne Perry as the teen murderer, Juliet Hulme. In 1994, the film Heavenly Creatures, portrayed Hulme and her friend Pauline Parker with characters being played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey respectively.

Perry's genre of writing covers Victorian Era Detective fiction for the most part. Her novels have been centered around two main characters, Thomas Pitt and William Monk. She has published 47 novels and several collections of stories.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Laura on October 31, 2014

Disappointing. Charlotte has become an afterthought. I love this series, but after reading the last two, I'm not sure I like the direction it's heading in. Charlotte is not even mentioned on the dust jacket to the next book. I love Thomas, but I also like having different perspective through Charlot......more

Goodreads review by Sue on November 19, 2010

Not her best, I think she is overdoing the inner circle story. And if Voisey is so twisted, he needs to get what is coming to him. Pretty ridiculous that he and his sister can murder an innocent man, and the authorities know it, with no repercussions.......more

Goodreads review by Anne on October 18, 2023

Anne Perry's books about crime in Victorian England are kind of meh if you ask me. They are not actively bad, but they aren't great either. In Southhampton Row, a medium is found dead in her palatial London house. Only three people came to see her the night she was killed, so the murderer must be o......more

Goodreads review by Geri on December 01, 2020

I really enjoy Anne Perry books. This story was very interesting. I like the time frame and the couple. Charlotte and Thomas Pitt......more

Goodreads review by Kristen on July 29, 2012

If you enjoy murder, mystery and the Victorian era, then Anne Perry is the author for you!! In this outing, the intrepid Inspector Pitt has been re-assigned to Special Branch as retaliation by Sir Charles Voisey, whom Pitt thwarted in an attempt to become so powerful as to make England a Democracy un......more