Murder on the Serpentine: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel, by Anne Perry

Since 1979, Anne Perry has provided readers with a window into the affairs of the British upper class, and the lower classes' fight for survival, during the Victorian era. In her first novel, Thomas Pitt, a policeman who has fought his way from destitution to middle class, meets his wife Charlotte while investigating the murder of her sister. Now, 20 years later, it is 1899, and Pitt is Commander Thomas Pitt, the head of Special Branch.

Queen Victoria is tired and in poor health. She has mourned her beloved Prince Albert for over 38 years, and the burden of her grief, combined with the stress of ruling an empire alone since she was 18 years old, has taken its toll. Nonetheless, the Queen has never shirked her duties and when she hears a rumor that her son, the Prince of Wales and future king of England, has been led astray by one of his circle, she asked an old friend to investigate. When that friend suffers an accidental death on the day he was to report his findings to her, the Queen calls on Commander Pitt to investigate the death and determine what he had uncovered.

As he investigates, Pitt must unravel a treasonous conspiracy against Great Britain while protecting the Royal family, and his own family from the fallout. Anne Perry skillfully, and with historical accuracy, brings each character to life against a backdrop of the last years of the Victorian era and the beginning of the 20th century.

(In return for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)

* Print Length: 288 pages
* Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 21, 2017)
* Publication Date: March 21, 2017
* Sold by: Random House LLC
* Language: English

A Christmas Message, by Anne Perry

Anne Perry's "A Christmas Message" reaffirmed why I love her books. Her ability to weave romance, mystery, history and the spiritual in an intelligent absorbing narrative is unsurpassed. She is unafraid to depict historical events that other authors avoid, and her characters age. Since I also age, it is refreshing to find protagonists on the far side of 40.

Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould and her husband of two years, Victor Narraway, are celebrating a cold Christmas in 1900 Palestine. A mysterious new acquaintance, an old man with powerful stories, is murdered after sharing a dinner with the couple. Shortly after finding his body, Narraway finds a note with a scrap of parchment that the old man had secretly placed in his coat. The note exhorts him to be at the "House of Bread" in Jerusalem on Christmas Eve. Although neither Vespasia or Narraway are particularly religious, they both know this is a message that cannot be ignored. As they make their way to Jerusalem by train, they are joined by Benedict, a kind man, with little memory, who somehow knows their mission but worries that a very dark character will stop them, just as this dark character has stopped the old man. Benedict also explains that in Hebrew, "House of Bread" is "Beit Lechem" or Bethlehem.

As I read this book, I felt the cold of long-ago Jaffa, I smelled the spices of the middle east bazaar, and experienced the lonely isolation of the desert at night. Perry writes that: "The world is full of interest, and beauty. The span of one life offers barely a taste of it: just sufficient to know that it is infinitely precious." This is true, and the world is even more interesting and more beautiful when viewed through a Perry novel like "A Christmas Message."

(In return for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Print Length: 176 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 1, 2016)
Publication Date: November 1, 2016
Sold by: Random House LLC