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In the debut of the New York Times-bestselling Victorian crime series, Inspector Thomas Pitt seeks an elusive strangler among upper-class British society. Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation gradually peels away the proper veneer of the elite world, exposing secrets and desires until suspicion becomes more frightening than truth. Outspoken Charlotte Ellison, struggling to remain within the confining boundaries of Victorian manners, has no trouble expressing herself to the irritating policeman. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to a romantic connection, the socially mismatched pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again. Rich with authentic period details and blending suspenseful mystery with a budding romance between Inspector Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, The Cater Street Hangman launched the long-running series by Edgar Award-winning author Anne Perry, with recent titles including The Angel Court Affair and Treachery at Lancaster Gate. Also the creator of the William Monk Novels, Perry has become one of the great names in detective fiction. As the Philadelphia Inquirer says, "Pitt's compassion and Charlotte's cleverness make them compatible sleuths, as well as extremely congenial characters. . . . Perry has the gift of making [the Victorian era] seem immediate and very much alive."… (more)
User reviews
The business of murder begins in the first few pages. When a young women is throttled to death, the inhabitants of Cater Street, a respectable upper middle-class neighborhood take pity on the victim’s family. But the murders continue, and their terror increases. A young investigator is called in to solve the crimes, and, in true Anne Perry fashion, the reader nail bites her way to the very last page when, after a few twists, a fair share of suspects, clues, and red herrings, the murderer’s identity is revealed.
Educated son of a gamekeeper, the investigator, Thomas Pitt is an anomaly. Physically ungainly, he has the speech and poise of the landed gentry, the comprehension worthy of England’s finest detectives, but the job and mannerisms of a social inferior. As part of his investigation, Pitt is introduced into the Ellison household and to Charlotte in particular who, like the man she will fall in love with and eventually marry, is a misfit.
Charlotte is viewed as a social liability by her mother and siblings due to her “extreme forthrightness.” One character asks, “Why does Charlotte always have to say what she thinks instead of what people wish?” With her pleasing looks and “mahogany hair,” Charlotte is presented as almost a social pariah, refusing to conform with society’s repressive rules of female conduct. She contrasts physically and temperamentally with her other two sisters, especially with Emily, who resolutely sets out to be wooed by Lord Ashton.
The mystery reader will find The Cater Street Hangman impossible to set down, and, as the first novel in a long series, a compelling gateway to the rest of the books.
For this reader, however, there are many unanswered questions about dangling story lines. Hopefully, they will be answered in the next book in the series. I've given this book 3 stars based on the originality of the plot.
This was a smashing beginning to what promises to be a very entertaining and thought provoking series. The mismatched leading characters are intriguing and the author writes with just enough suspense to keep me guessing almost to the very end. Good book!
But for some reason the combination of reasonably good, somewhat good and lacking all combined together to create a much better whole that was enjoyable to read and maintained interest throughout, notwithstanding the lack of spine-tingling feelings that the best crime novels should bring.
Will probably read more in the series.
One of the Ellisons disagrees with these ideas. Charlotte, Ellison daughter of marriageable age, finds the case fascinating, and also starts to find the police inspector, Thomas Pitt, rather interesting too.
Aside from being a good mystery, which this is, this book offers a wealth of information about Victorian family and gender norms. The reader gets an acute sense of the structures binding a free spirit like Charlotte Ellison. Readers who are not especially familiar with the Victorian period will likely find the ideas about the police interesting too-- they are hardly complimentary and quite different from the twenty-first century.
I did figure out the responsible party in this mystery rather earlier than I would have preferred, but this book certainly pulled me into the series and made me want to read more. I'm expecting subsequent books in this series to be better; this book had to lay significant groundwork introducing the family and the Ellison sisters.
The Ellisons, with their daughters Sarah, Charlotte, and Emily, live a very comfortable, refined life on the socially upscale Cater Street until a series of murders of young women strike
Although the socially elite find it an embarrassment to bring in the police, they are forced to when it becomes apparent that there is a monster in their midst who will not stop at killing wayward young maids, but who is also killing young women from society families. They finally admit Inspector Pitt into their drawing rooms, although they resent his intrusion.
He spends quite a bit of time at the Ellisons, unravelling secrets. He finds himself developing feelings for the uncomvewntional, outspoken, strong-minded Charlotte, which he must hold in check. Charlotte is much too far out of his social strata for a match to meet approval. Is it somehow possible, though, that Charlotte could return his feelings?
I quite enjoyed this and shall seek out more of this series in the future. I wouldn't say it's exactly a favorite, but hits just the right spot when I'm in the right mood.
Someone is garotting young ladies on Cater Street, and when it happens to the Ellison's maid, Inspector Thomas Pitt becomes an unwelcome but frequent visitor to the
Charlotte Ellison isn't even allowed to read the newspaper in her all too conventional upper middle class Victorian neighborhood. Her parents, her strict father in particular, wants
For the outspoken Charlotte, it introduces her to Inspector Thomas Pitt and in probably one of the lowest key romances ever, the two fall in love.
The actual mystery itself is average as mysteries. I feel the mystery portion of most Anne Perry works to be just average. What she does well (in my opinion) is to create interesting characters and accurate period detail.
Since Perry is a rather prolific author, I'd really like to see is a non-mystery novel from devoted to the issues arising from Charlotte and Pitt declaring their intention to wed and the problems Charlotte had adjusting to working class life when she clearly wasn't trained for it.
By the way this book was made into a mystery movie, which is currently available from A&E and probably other places as well.
I have been looking forward to reading this book for some time now. I have read and enjoyed many of the books in the William Monk series, and I have wanted to read this series as well but I wanted to start from the beginning and read them in order. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the beginning of this series. Firstly, the story is told in third person and we get many different perspectives on the case from Charlotte, her sisters, her mother, her grandmother and her brother in law, but at times the transitions from one person to another could be a bit confusing and distracted from the story. Also, it is almost frustrating that we never get the perspective of Inspector Pitt and the only impressions we get of him are what the other characters notice or see. I am not sure if the rest of the series is like this or not but I hope that Inspector Pitt becomes a more central figure in the next book. I guess that Anne Perry wanted to have a bit of mystery surrounding Inspector Pitt but it only frustrated me more. I think that I would have liked this book much more if it had been in first person like the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters or the Lady Julia Grey mysteries by Deanna Raybourn which allows readers to connect more with their heroines and give us a better perspective on their heroes.
Despite this there are a lot of good things in this novel; Anne Perry gives us an excellent insight into Victorian culture and times. She provides the audience with an accurate glimpse into the time period and what it was like to be a woman, wife, mother and daughter during a time when woman were meant to be quiet and keep their opinions to themselves. It is also interesting that she addresses the double standard that men had of women, men could cheat whenever they wanted as long as they kept discreet but women were not allowed to do this and had to just bear their husbands indiscretions. There are a lot of books that I have a read that have brushed this idea but Anne Perry makes it a central figure in her novel. Overall, I would continue to read the rest of the books in the series, if only to get a more clear picture of Inspector Pitt and see their developing relationship.
This series has its ups and downs, but even the weaker books are very strong on the period details: having read a dozen or so of them, I have never once felt jarred by an anachronism, and that is admirable. The hero of
(I'm sure the last thing Anne Perry wants people to mention is that she was one of the girls whose story is told in "Heavenly Creatures", but knowing that does make reading her murder mysteries even more intriguing.)
Charlotte is reading the paper in secret because her father thinks that their is only a little on the news fit
Charlotte has a crush on her sister Sarah's husband. She is very out spoken and not afraid to say things to others. She is also caring about others and trys to help when she can.
Sarah is married and she lives with her husband and her mother & Father, two sisters and grandmother in the same house.
Emily is the youngest of the three sisters and romance is very important to her. She can manuver with the best of them.
Someone is killing women on their street with a wire around their necks. Soon everyone is questioning everyone else. Pitt is the policeman that is in charge asking all the questions.
I did not guess the real murder till the end of the book I suspected a few but was wrong. I recieved this ebook from netgalley in exchange for honest review.
The book has an odd twist at the end. I had an inkling of who the killer was, but was a little off. The way Perry writes does point to the killer in an oblique way.
Perry does an excellent job of researching the era.
Cater was a bit slow but it
The mystery of whodunit was a mystery to me just about to the end but one scene made me switch my original guess to another member of the same household.
I so much enjoyed 'Cater Street Hangman' I was tempted to make my next check out #2 in the series Callander Square' but since the library did not have a copy it eliminated the temptation, but I'm a fan of Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series
Thank Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group.
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry is the first in a long series of novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt. I'm delighted to have found these new-to-me Victorian mysteries and relish the thought of reading the entire series.
I liked the writer's voice from the
While some readers may find the author a bit heavy-handed, I was interested in her description of the role of women within the family and the patriarchal, societal and religious influences on their restrictive lives. In spite of this, while not without her faults, Charlotte evidences intelligence and a strong will.
Perry does an exceptional job describing the dynamics of the Ellison family and their lives. I felt like I was right in their midst enjoying tea in the withdrawing room, and being overcome with confusion, fear and doubt as the murders progress. Well-drawn and distinctive characters here in the daughters and other family members.
There is a sharp contrast between Charlotte's sheltered existence and the harsh realities of the Victorian netherworld as recounted by Insp. Pitt. I particularly enjoyed the delightful scene when Charlotte gets quite an education of the criminal class while waiting in Pitt's office.
Well paced, especially as we zero in on the murderer, I flew through the book and admit, while I had lots of suspicions, it took me nearly until the reveal to identify the perpetrator......I love that in a mystery.
While really not looking for too much more romance, I might have enjoyed a little more development of Charlottes's feelings for Insp. Pitt, especially as we don't get much information on how he rather quickly goes from admiring Charlotte to proposing to her.
I felt the book ended a bit abruptly and perhaps a final short epilogue was needed, but all in all, The Cater Street Hangman was a very satisfying read. I'm looking forward to the other books in the series, which some reviewers have stated may be even better than this one. Lots more fun to look forward to.
The novel is great at showing the way that social gulf isolates people, and provides a barrier to Charlotte's and Thomas' romance, as well as the stultifying patriarchal culture Charlotte is trapped in. What she can read, what she can discuss is controlled by her father--the opening scene of the book shows her resorting to subterfuge just to read the daily newspaper.
I wouldn't call Perry's style elegant--among other things there are point of view slips--but it was serviceable enough, and the characters, especially Thomas Pitt, appealing enough I can imagine someday reading more of the novels.