Silence in Hanover Close by Anne Perry

 This Book

    Hanover Close, a wealthy area of town where the street is named because it is closed to all horse traffic. It also means this tiny neighborhood is a closed community. Pitt is asked to investigate whether or not a young widow whose husband was a Foreign Office employee before his untimely murder is a risk to The Empire. Everyone, except the woman's fiancé, is worried her husband's murder, seemingly at the hands on an inept burglar, was never solved. Pitt hates taking the case off of another investigator, but he hopes three years later, maybe some of the secrets shake loose. As he checks the underworld, perhaps chasing a very dangerous spy, whom he names Cerise, after the bright colored dress she wears, he finds few answers. Cerise hasn't been seen since the murder, but she was seen in both the dead man's house, and the fiancé's house. 

    When maid who first tells Pitt about Cerise is murdered, Pitt knows he's on the right track. He's also furious with Charlotte for posing as Emily's friend Jack Radley's cousin to investigate the murder herself. Emily, Jack and Charlotte regroup to see if they can figure out another line of investigation. Emily, still deep in mourning for her husband George, is bored and feeling useless has an inspired idea. She will take the dead girl's place as the widow's lady maid. She fakes the necessary references and with just a little help from the every adventurous Great Aunt Vespasia, lands the job.

    But the murders are smarter than they seem, and sensing Pitt closing in on them, they manage to have him arrested for the murder of a prostitute they paid to impersonate Cerise. Jack comes to Charlotte's aide, while Gracie stands loyally by their side. Charlotte's mom on the other hand, wants Charlotte to bring the children back to her house and give up on Thomas, something Charlotte will not do until there is no hope left. 

    Together Charlotte and her friends figure out the truth, but will they be able to save Pitt? 

My Thoughts

    Wow, does Anne Perry deliver here. This is a book with one hell of a twist ending, although a careful mystery reader should be able to guess it. Although the language is a bit outdated for our times, even though the book was originally published in the late 1980s, the moral arguments of today hold up in the book. She was a woman much ahead of her time.

    I found it hard to put the book down, and in fact stayed up an extra hour in order to read it all the way to the end, despite the 345 page length. I knew Pitt would be ok, and yet, I could not put the book down. I'd read it before, I remembered how the book ends, and yet, I could not put it down. Well done. 

    There is one strange thing though, Dominic Corde is represented as dead in this book, but I'm almost completely certain he is actually killed off in the next book. So this book was either published out of order, or somebody, the continuity editor failed at his or her job.  We last saw Dominic in Death in the Devil's Acre, but left him alive and well. I remember distinctly in the book where he is murdered that he was a preacher, having taken up good causes now that he saw the need as his vocation. In a strange way, it justifies both Sarah's (his late wife/Charlotte's older sister) and Charlotte's love for him in The Cater Street Hangman. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This book is one of the Ballantine Paperback Editions that entered my library on April 06, 2018. The length of the book, I feel, finally justifies the $17.00 price. This book has definitely been read a lot more than the previous book. It was easy to hold open in one hand. There are no smudges, not are there any dog ears or wrinkles. A pretty good read. 

This Book                       $17.00

This Summer                $377.99