Paragon Walk by Anne Perry

 The Book

    TRIGGER WARNING: Uncomfortable topics will be discussed, including sexual assault. If you are going to dip, do so now. 

    Book three in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. Here we see Inspector Thomas Pitt called in to investigate the rape and murder of a young woman named Fanny Nash. Fanny lives on Paragon Walk, a street from the Regency Era that houses many old, storied families, among them, Lord and Lady Ashford. Since Lady Emily Ashford is Charlotte Pitt's sister, Pitt is highly motivated to solve the case, hoping that he will not be forced to arrest Emily's husband George for the gruesome crime. 

The night Fanny was attacked, there was a large party at the end of the street, a quiet dinner party at the Nash house, with an odious guest, Lady Eliza Pomeroy. In order to escape, Fanny runs over to the Ashworth house to return a book to George's Great-Aunt Vespasia Cumming-Gould. A remarkable old lady who says exactly what she means. On her way home, Fanny is assaulted, manages to drag herself home where she dies in the arms of her sister-in-law Jessamyn Nash 

    As in her previous book, Anne Perry again makes use of a real life neighborhood from Victorian England, and gives us the dissipation of the idle rich of the era. Once again Charlotte becomes involved in the goings on, partly as a desire to help Emily who is pregnant with her first child, and partly because she is just now comfortable mixing with people after having married so socially beneath her station. Charlotte proves to be every bit as skilled in the arts of deductive reasoning as her husband, and again she solves the murderous twist. 

My Thoughts:

    This is the first book in which the editor gives way to Perry's psychological and moral ramblings in the narrative.  We have a sprinkling of asides throughout the book, such as when Pitt decides not to press a witness, Phoebe Nash. Here we see him reflect that criminals "rarely appear different from anyone else. Crime so often surprised people, as if it were not merely an outward act born from the inward selfishness, greed, or hate that had grown to big inside, the dishonesties suddenly without restraint." (page 29).

    I do not doubt that part of Perry's particular insight has to do with the fact that she was raised in a household with a practicing psychiatrist. Her mother's unusal choice of career, combined with how early in the developing field psychiatry is meant her mother routinely performed the duties we now ascribe to psychologists. She therefore grew up with a deep  understanding in the underlying motivations of people. And doubtless, her own experience as a criminal, has informed her moral outlook here. As she stretches out in her characterizations, her close third person asides grow more frequent. She is careful in spacing and tone, not to be too preachy. She knows her subject well, and is using her voice to express it.

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

   This book is A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback version circa 2018. It was recieved into my library on April 06, 2018. It has been lightly used, and is in construction fairly flimsy. We are fortunate to have light readers in the area. This book says it costs $16.00, which when we add it in brings us in at over $100 saved by using my library card for this project.

This Book                        $16.00

This Summer                  $104.99