What to Read? … What to Read?

Thank you Amazon for the picture

“Pitt felt a little stung. “Who is Cahoon Dunkeld?” he asked, avoiding looking at Narraway. He had a reverence for Queen Victoria, especially now in her advanced age and widowhood, even though he was perfectly well aware of her reputed eccentricities and the fact that she had not always been so popular with her people. She had been in mourning too long, retreating not only from joy but also from duty. And he had gained some personal knowledge a couple of years ago of the extravagance and the self-indulgence of the Prince of Wales, and knew he kept several very expensive mistresses. Pitt had been superintendent of Bow Street then, and the conspiracy around the Prince had cost him his job and very nearly brought down the throne. That was why Pitt was now working for Victor Narraway in Special Branch, learning more about treason, anarchy, and other forms of violence against the State.”

So many books and so little time; or at least that’s what it feels like. I had a very lazy type of day today so lazy in fact that I sat by my window in my comfy reading chair and watched the thunderstorm in between chapters. Hey! I’m good at multi tasking, it’s true…ok enough about that back to the book, which happens to be Buckingham Palace Gardens written by one of the best Victorian mystery author’s Anne Perry

The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their elegant wives to the palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa.  But, alas, the prince’s gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic (after the wives have retired to bed) turns up among the queen’s monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closet.

With great haste, Thomas Pitt, brilliant mainstay of Special Services, is summoned to resolve the crisis.  The Pitt’s cockney maid, Gracie, is also recruited - to pose as a palace servant and listen to the guests’ conversations, scan their bedrooms, and scrutinize their troubled faces for clues to hidden rivalries and attachments that could have led to murder.  If Pitt and Gracie fail to find out who brutally murdered the young woman - as seems increasingly likely - Pitt’s career will be over, and the scandal may just cause the monarchy to fall.

I have been a fan of Perry’s for a while now; I am particularly fond of the Pitt series, Perry has a way to bring you into the story, she breathes life into her characters so much that you share in their joys, disappointments and you forget that they are only alive in the imagination and words of Perry.

Happy Reading

Sarah