Audiobook Review: The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

The Cater Street Hangman
Author: Anne Perry
Narrator: Davina Porter
Series: Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Series (Book 1)
Publication: Recorded Books (March 19, 2009)
Length: 10 hours and 3 minutes

Description: In the debut of the New York Times–bestselling Victorian crime series, Inspector Thomas Pitt seeks an elusive strangler among upper-class British society.

Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation gradually peels away the proper veneer of the elite world, exposing secrets and desires until suspicion becomes more frightening than truth. Outspoken Charlotte Ellison, struggling to remain within the confining boundaries of Victorian manners, has no trouble expressing herself to the irritating policeman. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to a romantic connection, the socially mismatched pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again.

Rich with authentic period details and blending suspenseful mystery with a budding romance between Inspector Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, The Cater Street Hangman launched the long-running series by Edgar Award–winning author Anne Perry, with recent titles including The Angel Court Affair and Treachery at Lancaster Gate. Also the creator of the William Monk Novels, Perry has become one of the great names in detective fiction. As the Philadelphia Inquirer says, “Pitt’s compassion and Charlotte’s cleverness make them compatible sleuths, as well as extremely congenial characters. . . Perry has the gift of making [the Victorian era] seem immediate and very much alive.”

My Thoughts: Inspector Thomas Pitt is assigned the case of the Cater Street Hangman. After two housemaids and a gentlewoman of the area are found garroted on Cater Street, Inspector Pitt has to interview the upper middle-class residents of the street.

Miss Charlotte Ellison and her family are residents. In her Victorian household, it is her father who makes the rules. One of his rules that his daughters not read the newspapers as the news is too unpleasant for ladies. Charlotte has taken to sneaking the newspapers from the butler's pantry so that she can find out what is happening. While outwardly obedient, she sometimes rebels against the constraints of her life. 

Charlotte has an older sister Sarah who is married to a man Charlotte has fancied herself in love with since he first began courting her sister. She also has a younger sister named Emily who is determined to marry a man with a title. However, he has a reputation as a rogue and a gambler which makes Charlotte fear for her sister's future and reputation. 

With an unknown killer stalking the neighborhood, suspicions begin to grow and they grow in Charlotte's house too. She wonders and fears that either her father or her brother-in-law could be the murderer. And she is not alone in her fears or suspicions. Her mother and her sisters share them. Both her mother and her sister Sarah begin to question how much they really know about the lives of the men they married. 

Meanwhile, Pitt is visiting and questioning both Charlotte's father and brother-in-law and interviewing the servants too. During his frequent visits, he and Charlotte come to know and admire each other. But there seems to be little future for the two of them since he is not of her social class. 

The story was filled with Victorian details and attitudes complete with a double standard regarding what men and women are allowed to do. Secrets exposed threaten the futures of her mother's and her sister's marriages. But then Sarah becomes another victim of the Hangman.

This was an entertaining mystery filled with vivid characters. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.