Pentecost Alley

Pentecost Alley

The ritual murder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley would ordinarily occasion no stir in Victoria's great metropolis. But under the victim's body the police find a Hellfire Club badge inscribed with the name Finlay Fitzjames--a name that instantly draws Superintendent Thomas Pitt into the case. Finlay's father--immensely wealthy, powerful, and dangerous--refuses to consider the possibility that his son has been in Ada McKinley's bed. The implication is clear: Pitt is to arrest someone other than Finlay Fitzjames for Ada's demise. But Thomas Pitt is not a man to be intimidated, and with the help of his quick-witted wife, Charlotte, and her well-connected friends, he stubbornly pursues his investigation--one that twists and turns like London's own ancient streets.... Anne Perry has devised the most intricate mystery of her prolific career in PENTECOST ALLEY , whose brilliant resolution will astonish and satisfy even the most discerning. Thomas and Charlotte Pitt take on Jack the Ripper in this latest in Perry's best-selling Victorian mystery series. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. In what may well be the finest story yet in an already outstanding series, Perry offers a thoroughly entertaining, masterfully written Victorian murder mystery featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt. Seamlessly blending the customs, speech patterns, ambience, and social problems of turn-of-the-century London into an intriguing story, Perry has Pitt facing his most difficult case yet when a prostitute is brutally tortured and killed. All the evidence points to Finlay Fitzjames as the murderer. Fitzjames, son of a prominent London businessman, is on his way to an ambassadorship, so no one--least of all Pitt, who knows a politically sensitive case when he sees one--wants to believe the young man could have committed such a horrible crime. When the prostitute's pimp confesses, everyone is relieved. But no sooner is the pimp tried and hanged for murder than a second prostitute is killed in the same brutal manner as the first. Pitt is devastated, knowing an innocent man has been hanged. Now he must track down the real killer, who is as devious, diabolical, and elusive as any he has ever pursued. Perry has created a superbly plotted, grippingly suspenseful period piece filled with intriguing characters and fascinating descriptions of the manners and customs of Victorian London. Buy plenty. Emily Melton Superintendent Thomas Pitt's rise to commander of the Bow Street station has carried him above the sordid run of London crime, but when Whitechapel prostitute Ada McKinley is tortured and strangled two years after the reign of Jack the Ripper, a cufflink and a button from the defunct Hellfire Club on the scene make the case sensitive enough to bring in Pitt. Both articles are traced to Finlay FitzJames, a young diplomat whose wealthy, ruthless father Augustus's massive contempt for Pitt and his mission casts his son in an even more suspicious light. Pitt, keenly aware of the pressure to arrest someone else, is relieved when his own wife Charlotte and her sister Emily Radley, insinuating themselves into the confidence of Finlay's sister Tallulah, uncover an alibi Finlay cannot make public--and even more relieved when he extracts a confession from a pimp that seems to close the case. A trial follows, as well as a speedy execution--and then, to Pitt's horror, there's a second murder exactly like the first, linked to Finlay by still another scrap of haberdashery. If Finlay is innocent, who is so determined to incriminate him? And if he's guilty, how can Pitt bring him to book when he's being ridiculed all over town for hanging the wrong man? Repetitious and yet perfunctory in probing the suspects; and bits of the truth, at least, are obvious from the beginning. Still, the mystification, and the intensity of Pitt's dilemma, are genuine. Altogether, Perry's best book since Defend and Betray (1992). (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. urder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley would ordinarily occasion no stir in Victoria's great metropolis. But under the victim's body the police find a Hellfire Club badge inscribed with the name Finlay Fitzjames--a name that instantly draws Superintendent Thomas Pitt into the case. Finlay's father--immensely wealthy, powerful, and dangerous--refuses to consider the possibility that his son has been in Ada McKinley's bed. The implication is clear: Pitt is to arrest someone other than Finlay Fitzjames for Ada's demise. But Thomas Pitt is not a man to be intimidated, and with the help of his quick-witted wife, Charlotte, and her well-connected friends, he stubbornly pursues his investigation--one that twists and turns like London's own ancient streets.... Anne Perry has devised the most intricate mystery of her prolific career in PENTECOST