The idiosyncratic selection of books I've borrowed from Libraries of Friendship includes a small pile of Anne Perry novels lent by a friend's Mum. This is the first I've read, as I'd never heard of them and was unsure where to start. Somehow I've ended up starting with the twentieth in a series, which worked perfectly well as a self-contained novel. I am admittedly no great enthusiast of murder mysteries. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to discover that the murder in 'Half Moon Street' was part of the plot without dominating it. The book opens with Inspector Thomas Pitt examining the newly discovered corpse, however he is not the sole protagonist and his investigation is not all that occurs. I found the female characters and their dilemmas rather more interesting than whodunnit. The most vivid scenes in the book featured the dynamic between Pitt's mother-in-law and her mother-in-law. The latter is an acerbic woman, to the point of meanness, who is attempting to hide a shameful secret. The former has to put up with this, while challenged by the gulf in social mores between her conservative friends and her younger husband's acting set.

'Half Moon Street' includes some insightful and involving scenes showing the painful evolution of Victorian attitudes to marriage and divorce, as well as censorship. Perry takes the reader deep into the thoughts of her protagonists and the plot progresses via dialogue rather than action. I enjoyed this rather dilatory approach and several picturesque touches like a brief cameo from Oscar Wilde. I was less keen on the way lower class characters' accents were transcribed, e.g. '"I dunno, sir, 'cept I reckon 'e must be, or 'ow would 'e know 'oo they are?"' That was a bit awkward. I also found the denouement unsatisfactorily melodramatic. Despite the final scene taking place in a theatre among actors, I still found it excessive. Cecily Antrim's motivations were also rather baffling to me, as the reader never gets to see her point of view as we do Caroline's and Mariah's. Indeed, I would have preferred it had the whole novel contained no murder at all and just been a family drama examining Victorian social mores. Nonetheless, it was diverting enough that I will try another and hope Caroline has an equally significant role. ( )

(2000)Another very good Thomas Pitt mystery where he tries to find out who killed a local photographer and dressed the corpse as a woman.

This was the first book I ever read by Anne Perry. Eh. Well, it was a lot better written than a lot of mysteries I've read. But it oscillated weirdly between fairly typical murder-mystery with police investigations and clues and all that - and a barely-connected story with lots of musings on the role of women in society, the theatre, and the issues involved in censorship. Then, about halfway through, it basically went off on an extended rant against pornography and how bondage/fetish is sick & woman-hating. Whatever. Tell it to all the women I know in the fetish scene....

So. I was unimpressed. And then while I was reading it (at work) I got informed that the writer is actually one of the girls that movie Heavenly Creatures is about, and when she was a teenager she actually killed someone. It's kinda creepy that now she's a successful murder-mystery writer. ( )

I love Anne Perry's novels, all of them, for the vitality and complexity of her characters and her keen depiction of 19th century England. If only there were more than the great stack I've read. ( )

Inspec Pitt, murdered photographer-Cathcart, theater star Cecily Antrim, son Orlando
Carolina, Joshua Sameul(from America)