Anne Perrys Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries are perhaps the best loved of all her Victorian bestsellers luring us into the multilayered richness of London from the great mansions and secluded drawing rooms to the citys festering slums Now in her most mesmerizing novel yet she invites us to a house-party at Buckingham Palace The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to the palace to discuss a fantastic idea the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa But alas the princes gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic after the wives have retired to bed turns up among the queens monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closetWith great haste Thomas Pitt brilliant mainstay of Special Services is summoned to resolve the crisis The Pitts cockney maid Gracie is also recruitedto pose as a palace servant and listen in on the guests conversations scan their bedrooms and scrutinize their troubled faces for clues to hidden rivalries and attachments that could have lead to murder If Pitt and Gracie fail to find out who brutally murdered the young womanas seems increasingly likelyPitts career will be over and the scandal may just cause the monarchy to fallWith a cast of wonderful characters among them the gentle Princess of Wales and a twisting plot that takes us into the hidden world of the royal family Anne Perry probes deeply the hearts of men and women ensnared by their own emotions Never has this distinguished novelist told a story with more truth and passion.
