Southampton Row (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Novels)
Thomas Pitt prefers the grim routine of murder investigations to the  riskier probing of Victorian governmental intrigues. Yet Anne Perry'sSouthampton Rowagain finds him displaced from his police command, this  time to foil the political ambitions of a ruthless republican.Charles Voisey, leader of a powerful secret society known as the Inner Circle,  was defeated by Pitt when he tried (inThe Whitechapel Conspiracy) to  abolish the British monarchy. Only months later, though, he's back on top,  running for a seat in Parliament. Under the auspices of the newly created  Special Branch, Pitt is charged with learning whether Voisey has any "unguarded  vulnerabilities." The odds against Pitt succeeding are high; Voisey may be  "shallow, self-important [and] condescending," but he impresses voters as more  charismatic and less controversial than his opponent, Aubrey Serracold, who's  also hobbled by his connection to the recent slaying of a popular spiritualist.  While Pitt's wife, Charlotte, and their family are safely out of London on  vacation, Pitt, aided by the gruff but dogged Inspector Samuel Tellman, his  politically astute sister-in law, and Charlotte's resourceful great-aunt  Vespasia, seeks to solve the medium's murder before it can derail Aubrey  Serracold's campaign.Perry expertly portrays the volatile British political climate of the 1890s, and  by making Pitt and Tellman rivals in their investigation, she further  illuminates both men's characters. However,Southampton Rowreduces the  usually intrepid Charlotte to a hand-wringing irrelevance, and the novel feels  too much like an intermediate and inconclusive chapter in a longer story arc.  Like Holmes and Moriarty, Thomas Pitt and Charles Voisey appear destined to  grapple once more.--J. Kingston Pierce--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.