Ashworth Hall: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel - Softcover

Perry, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345514211 ISBN 13: 9780345514219

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2011

Synopsis

When a group of powerful Irish Protestants and Catholics gather at a country house to discuss Irish home rule, contention is to be expected. But when the meeting’s moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, negotiations seem doomed. Unless Superintendent Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, can root out the truth, simmering hatreds and passions may again explode in murder.

About this title

Review:

Longtime readers of Anne Perry will be familiar with Inspector Thomas Pitt, the low-born London copper with a better-born wife, Charlotte. Set during the Victorian era, Perry's mysteries usually examine the dark underbelly of aristocratic life. Homosexuality, adultery, and pedophilia have all been subjects of her previous books; in Ashworth Hall she injects a new ingredient: politics.

Ashworth Hall is the name of an estate where, in the autumn of 1890, a highly secret meeting is being held to discuss Anglo-Irish relations. The "Irish Problem" soon takes a backseat to murder, however, and Inspector Pitt, who as the son of servants grew up on just such an estate, is called in to solve the case. While he investigates below-stairs, Charlotte gathers clues above. As usual, their collaboration is successful, both in crime-solving and as literature.

From the Inside Flap:

When a group of powerful Irish Protestants and Catholics gather at a country house to discuss Irish home rule, contention is to be expected. But when the meeting's moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, negotiations seem doomed. To make matters worse, it appears the late Greville may have led a less than savory personal life.

Unless Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, can root out the truth, simmering hatreds and passions may again explode in murder, the home rule movement may collapse, and civil war may destroy all of Ireland. . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0345514211
• ISBN 13: 9780345514219
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384