Booklist Reviews
This is billed as the last entry in the long-running series starring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt. Perry's beat is Victorian England; her special bent is to hold a lens up to a social wrong of the time that reflects one of our own society's continuing abuses. In this last Pitt book, the thirty-second in the series, Queen Victoria herself summons Thomas, the head of London's Special Branch, which deals with threats to national safety, to Buckingham Palace. One of the Queen's trusted advisers has been found dead in a rowboat on the Serpentine River in Hyde Park. Was it an accident or murder? Every reader of mysteries knows it never is an accident. Every longtime reader of Perry knows that the dead man's secrets could upend a government and endanger Pitt's life. The investigation follows the usual procedure: Pitt does his official sleuthing, while his wellborn wife, Charlotte, seeks out receptions where she can get the dirt on aristocrats who may be involved in the crime. This is formulaic in the extreme but necessary to round out the series for Perry fans. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Queen Victoria has summoned Thomas Pitt to investigate the murder of her close confidante Sir John Halberd, a man with dangerous secrets. This 32nd outing is the last in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, but Perry will leap forward to 1910 for new series starring the next generation of Pitts.. Copyright 2016 Library Journal.
Library Journal Reviews
The 32nd book in the "Charlotte and Thomas Pitt" series (after Treachery at Lancaster Gate) brings the story of Perry's Victorian sleuths to a close. Thomas, now Head of Special Branch, takes on a murder case for Queen Victoria. There's a great deal of back history and foreshadowing in this finale. A new series will jump forward to 1910 and the next generation of Pitts. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/16.]
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Queen Victoria needs the help of Thomas Pitt, who now commands Special Branch, in Perry's autumnal 32nd mystery featuring Pitt and his wife, Charlotte (after 2015's