Southampton Row, Anne Perry

 The Book 

The Inner Circle is at it again. Thomas Pitt is dismissed from being the Superintendent of Bow Street a second time and sent to work in the newest, and most secretive police service in Britain, Special Branch. He's supposed to get three weeks vacation, but just as they are headed out of the door, his new boss, Victory Narraway, cancels his leave. Charlotte and the children go on without him, while Pitt remain behind to protect the nation from the rise of Charles Voisey. The villain from the previous book is back, and standing for Parliament. 

Voisey is challenging a seat normally held by liberals. Thomas's brother-in-law, Jack Radley, recruited the candidate for the seat himself, a man by the name of Aubrey Serracold. . Narraway needs to know as much as possible about Voisey, if they are to stop the Fenians. 

As hard as it is for Pitt to be in London without his wife and kids, especially during the most heated part of a campaign, it gets worse. A medium, Maude Lamont, is murdered, and one of the people at the séance the night she died was Serracold's wife, Rose. Pitt now has to take away Tellman's first case in which he was in charge, and he must find out if Rose killed Maude, or if this is also the work of the Inner Circle. 

My Thoughts

Well, fresh off of the campaign trail myself, I can tell you Anne Perry was never near a political campaign in her life. I found the dialog around the campaign a bit outlandish, nobody I know ever talked that way. But it served the plot. 

What is fascinating, is that at this moment in time, the US is having a similar debate about our place in the world and how our economic policies stack up over the long haul. Has it been good or bad for us? But then, those at the top have always had a vested interest in keeping the status quo. And the ordinary folk, may be for change. Especially when they feel left out. 

Echoes, I can hear them in today's work, and that goes to Perry's skill as as novelist. She was supremely well researched and articulated both side of the argument, through her characters pretty well. 

I sank into this book, after many weeks of exhaustion. It felt like coming home. I was slowed in the first part of the book because so much time and so many books had passed between the last novel in this series, The Whitechapel Conspiracy, and this one. I barely remembered who Pitt's arch nemesis Charles Voisey was. And to be honest, although there are many things I remember about that book, I don't remember the twist ending. It had been at least 12 weeks and 6 books since I read it. 

Having said that, and for all of the negative things I have to say here, I like this book. I read the last half in one night and in just under 90 minutes. The plot twist was a classic puzzle mystery, showing Perry's top notch skill as a mystery novelist.  

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

My time as a trustee at my local library has come to an end. I will continue to check out books from my library. And the tracking of how much my card saved me will continue. But I am not going to restrict my reading to mostly library books. So there will be a change in this section in the future. But it will still be here. 

This 324 page book came to me from Algonquin Public Library District. I feel like I get a lot of Anne Perry's from there, but I haven't counted. This book is showing it's age, but it has aged gently. It entered their library on March 1, 2002. Given the stamping sticky page in the front of the book, before they went digital. However, the page is empty, which means they upgraded after they needed a new page and before it would be checked out again. Fascinating. 

The cover of this book says it cost $25.00 when it was new. That's the number we will use. 

This Book                                                    $25.00 

Items Reviewed this Year                           $210.91

Still Here? 

 I am now a published author. You can pick up a *FREE COPY* of my novella The Big Intersection here.