What do You think about Silence In Hanover Close (1989)?
Inspector Thomas Pitt assumes a secondary role in this complex, gripping and highly satisfying mystery. High officials in the Foreign Office wish to reopen the unsolved murder case of one of their diplomats, Robert York, and Pitt is reluctantly chosen by Supt. Ballarat, to head the investigation. Ballarat is fearful of offending powerful friends, so he cautions Pitt to be thoroughly discreet, thus rendering him ineffectual. Charlotte decides to aid him by exploring the upper levels of society that are closed to a police inspector. Skillfully assuming the role of a country girl with breeding and money, she befriends key figures in the York murder: Veronica, the stunning yet fragile widow, and Loretta, York's steely and self-contained mother. Emily, Charlotte's titled and wealthy sister, carries the investigation a step further by hiring on as Veronica's ladies' maid, where, her real identity unknown, she is able to eavesdrop on both upstairs and downstairs gossip. The mystery is an adroit blend of thick London atmosphere and a convincing cast, mingled with the complex and straitlaced conventions of Victorian England. A bonus is a totally surprising yet wonderfully plausible finale.
—Connie Melton
This is a Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery. Silence in Hanover Close is ninth in the Thomas Pitt series. Charlotte, Thomas Pitt's wife, and her sister, Emily, play major roles in helping Pitt with his investigation of an unsolved murder in the upperclass neighborhood of Hanover Close. In this book Perry toys with treason and its cover up as a possible motive for murder. It turns out not to be the case but, as with all Anne Perry's Pitt mysteries, the motive and the murderer are revealed in the final pages.The plot was intricate and each revelation came as a complete surprise to me. I was amazed by the identity of Cerise.
—Judith
to read till the very end only to find out that the mysterious cerise was actually a transvestite! it must be very dark when cerise was spotted since i find it a tad questionable that even the most handsome man can successfully masquerade as a beautiful woman during the victorian era...
—Doreen
