The Cater Street Hangman

I've been reading Anne Perry for a while, I first read The Cater Street Hangman years ago and enjoyed it. And I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it as much as the first time around.

Here's the blurb of the book:

While the Ellison girls were out paying calls and drinking tea like proper Victorian ladies, a maid in their household was strangled to death. The quiet and young Inspector Pitt investigates the scene and finds no one above suspicion. As his intense questioning causes many a composed facade to crumble, Pitt finds himself couriously drawn to pretty Charlotte Ellison. Yet, a romance between a society girl and so unsuitable a suitor was impossible in the midst of a murder....

I love reading books set in the Vicotrian era, most are beautifully set to show us that grandeur and beauty of it. But this book shows us the ugliness, the darkeness of the era as well. It also give us a look into the society, the heirarchy of it. Although the Ellison family is not a nobel family, it's a well to do family with means and they are not merchants, which at the time was quite a issue. They are in the middle of a terrible tragedy, the families on and around Cater Street on going through a hard time. Someone is killing, acutally garroting young women. And some of these women are considered sinful.

I don't want to give too much up, but let's just say that you'll be surprised...

The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry (4.5/5) Historical Mystery; Published: St Martins Pr (June 1979); Series: # 1, Charlotte & Thomas Pitt; Re-read; Library Book