The First Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel
The Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels are a series of historical detective fiction books written by English author Anne Perry, who has also achieved fame for the William Monk series. Spanning across over 30 books, the series chronicles the adventures of the Victorian police detective Thomas Pitt and his Love Interest the high-class Charlotte Ellison (who becomes Charlotte Pitt early on in the series.) It contains several reoccurring characters and, although episodic in nature, it features a strong continuity. The series also often examines the social issues of Victorian Britain like colonial politics, exploitative capitalism, poverty, and gender, with later volumes also delving into intercontinental intrigue.Charlotte and Thomas both share the spotlight as they help each other solve various baffling crimes and continue to grow their own family (with Charlotte giving birth to Thomas' children, Jemima and Daniel.) While Thomas uses his eye for evidence and resources as a member of the police, Charlotte uses her family's high-society connections to offer Thomas evidence and knowledge that would be otherwise barred to him.
Anne Perry ended the series with the thirty-second book, Murder on the Serpentine. The saga of Thomas and Charlotte continued in a new series with a Time Skip and a new generation of detectives added to the cast, and six books starring their son Daniel Pitt were published before Perry's death in 2023. The books were also adapted into a TV series called The Inspector Pitt Mysteries.
Books in the series:
- The Cater Street Hangman (1979)
- Callander Square (1980)
- Paragon Walk (1981)
- Resurrection Row (1981)
- Rutland Place (1983)
- Bluegate Fields (1984)
- Death in the Devil's Acre (1985)
- Cardington Crescent (1987)
- Silence in Hanover Close (1988)
- Bethlehem Road (1990)
- Highgate Rise (1991)
- Belgrave Square (1992)
- Farrier's Lane (1993)
- The Hyde Park Headsman (1994)
- Traitors Gate (1995)
- Pentecost Alley (1996)
- Ashworth Hall (1997)
- Brunswick Gardens (1998)
- Bedford Square (1999)
- Half Moon Street (1998)
- The Whitechapel Conspiracy (2001)
- Southampton Row (2002)
- Seven Dials (2003)
- Long Spoon Lane (2005)
- Buckingham Palace Gardens (2008)
- Betrayal at Lisson Grove (US title: Treason at Lisson Grove) (2011)
- Dorchester Terrace (2012)
- Midnight at Marble Arch (2013)
- Death on Blackheath (2014)
- The Angel Court Affair (2015)
- Treachery at Lancaster Gate (2016)
- Murder on the Serpentine (2016)
This series contains examples of:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Charlotte begins the series in love with her sister's husband, although this is averted when it comes to her eventual husband Thomas.
- The first book, The Cater Street Hangman, plays this for drama with the killer. She's a closeted lesbian who's horrified by her attraction to women, and kills them for "tempting" her even though none of them could have even guessed her feelings.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Suspects and witnesses will often be as obstructive as possible because the murders will be tied up in their own secrets. Callander Square has this behavior discussed between Charlotte and her father, where he's more worried that Thomas Pitt will accidentally dig up their own dirt rather than find the killer.
- Big Good: Vespasia Cumming-Gould, the elderly aunt of Emily's first husband, fulfills this role for the Pitts due to her strong connections in Victorian high society and her strong moral convictions.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The very first case involves someone garroting women with a cheese wire.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Cater Street Hangman was originally written to be a stand-alone novel before Anne Perry conceived of writing her characters in a series, and as such has a very different tone from the rest of the books.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the books include location names relevant to the crime being solved.
- Interclass Romance: Charlotte is from an upper-class family, while Thomas Pitt is a police inspector at the start of their romance.
- Official Couple: Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, who court and get married within the first couple books.
- Period Piece: The books take place in the Victorian era, but were written between 1979 and 2016.
- Psycho Lesbian: The murderer in the first book is actually this, as she's killing the women she's attracted to under the mistaken notion that they're intentionally tempting her to "sin". A more sympathetic example than most; her husband is a morally self-righteous vicar who's cold and sex-repulsed, and Thomas disdainfully implies that he's part of the reason she snapped.
- Second Love: Thomas is this to Charlotte.
