Long Spoon Lane

Posted on September 16th, 2009

Long Spoon Lane

By Anne Perry

Ballantine Books, $25.95, 336 pages

ISBN 0345469275

Anne Perry’s latest addition to the excellent Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series is a compelling tale of murder, terror, and corruption in 1893 London. In the opening paragraphs, Thomas Pitt and Victor Narraway, both with the Special Branch for England’s homeland security, respond to a terrorist threat and race across the city hoping to thwart a bombing in the gritty East End. Arriving in time to witness but too late to prevent the explosion and devastation, Pitt and Narraway immediately pursue the suspects. The chase leads Pitt, Narraway, and policemen to a tenement in dingy Long Spoon Lane where a gun battle ensues and two suspects are arrested. One dead suspect, however, is identified as Magnus Landsborough, and he instantly becomes the most interesting piece of a complicated puzzle for Pitt and the Special Branch.

Magnus Landsborough died because of an apparent gunshot to the head, but more significantly, Magnus was the son of a respected Member of Parliament. Pitt immediately ponders several questions: Why was Magnus, an ostensibly honorable young man with important social and political connections, involved in the murderous terrorist bombing? And, equally important, how and why did this young man really die?

Pitt, eager to find answers to these and other questions, sets out on a harrowing adventure in which he must move with equal ease in tough, down-and-out neighborhoods and in high-society drawing rooms. Relying upon help from his wife Charlotte and a few dependable friends and colleagues, but also reluctantly allying himself with a personal enemy from within England’s mysterious Inner Circle, Pitt—despite dangers to himself and his family—ultimately exposes terrifying truths about personal loyalties, family secrets, police integrity, and Parliamentary politics.

Anne Perry fills her exciting novel with perfectly nuanced images of life in 1893 London, and she has proven once again through her adroit blending of ingenious plotting, superb characterizations, and compelling themes that she is a master of the Victorian crime novel. Readers will not want to miss out on this 24^th addition to a consistently entertaining series.

Tags: Anne Perry, Ballantine Books, Dependable Friends, Drawing Rooms, Family Secrets, Gun Battle, Inner Circle, Landsborough, Latest Addition, Member Of Parliament, Nuanced, Parliamentary Politics, Personal Loyalties, Pitt Series, Police Integrity, Political Connections, Tenement, Terrorist Bombing, Thomas Pitt, Wife Charlotte
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