Buckingham Palace Gardens
by Anne Perry
Published by Ballantine
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
The 23rd in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries, this novel features Gracie, the Pitt’s young maid, working undercover to help Pitt unmask an upper-class murderer, among houseguests of the Price of Wales in Buckingham Palace.
Four prosperous businessmen and their elegant wives are staying at Buckingham Palace and meeting with the Prince of Wales to work out plans for a railway from South Africa to Cairo. They each have their skills, one good at diplomacy, one at finance, another an engineer. The group is related as well–the daughter of the main organizer, Cahoon Dunkeld, is married to one of the men, and attracted to his brother, another of the group. To celebrate their success in their venture, the men organize a party after their wives have retired, and import some prostitutes into the palace. The very next morning, one of the prostitutes, the one who had been with the Prince, is found naked, stabbed and bloody, stuffed in a linen closet.
Victor Narraway of Special Branch is called in, and he brings his best investigator Thomas Pitt. Very quickly they ascertain that none of the servants could be responsible, and that they need help. Narraway recruits Gracie to work at the Palace, to overhear what she can, and to observe and pick up information from the servants. Pitt is disgusted by the attitudes of the four men, by the way they treat their wives, and their attitude towards the lower classes. They are running out of time, the Queen is due back, and the pressure is on. One of the wives, the sparkling and frivolous Minnie Sorokine, is determined to investigate things on her own, questioning the servants and making insinuating veiled comments at dinner. What has she found out? Gracie is not sure. Will there be more deaths?
This story will immerse you in the closed, false, and stifling world of the Victorian upper class and aristocracy. Gracie, Pitt, Narraway and the nearly deaf Princess of Wales are the true heroes here.
Armchair Interviews says: Well done, Anne Perry.
Author’s Web site: http://www.AnnePerry.net