The Cater Street Hangman
My rating:
didn't like it it was ok liked it really liked it it was amazing
add to my books

The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt #1)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86  ·  rating details  ·  3,289 ratings  ·  303 reviews
"An ingenious mystery and an excellent example of manners and caste systems of the Victorian era."
THE CHATTANOOGA TIMES
While the Ellison girls were out paying calls and drinking tea like proper Victorian ladies, a maid in their household was strangled to death. The quiet and young Inspector Pitt investigates the scene and finds no one above suspicion. As his intense questi...more
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Published October 12th 1985 by Fawcett (first published June 1st 1979)
more details... edit details
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto EcoThe Alienist by Caleb CarrMistress of the Art of Death by Ariana FranklinThe Daughter of Time by Josephine TeyThe Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
Best Historical Mystery
14th out of 526 books — 907 voters
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg LarssonAnd Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieMurder on the Orient Express by Agatha ChristieThe Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg LarssonAngels and Demons by Dan Brown
Best Crime & Mystery Books
287th out of 2,513 books — 4,356 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 4,627)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Amanda
Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars
I read this on a day I stayed home sick from work. I felt terrible, but escaping into this book gave me several hours of wonderful distraction. Perry perfectly evoked the spirit and flavor of the era and what life was like for an intelligent and curious young woman in a time when those were not considered favorable attributes for women.
The mystery is good, touching as it does the obsessions the Victorians had for sex and religion. The best thing for me in The Cater Street Hangman is the se...more
Rose
Rose rated it 3 of 5 stars
The Cater Street Hangman is the first Charlotte & Inspector Pitt novel by Anne Perry. I had read some of the Pitt mysteries as a teenager and thought I might start at the beginning of the series and read them through. I remembered being fascinated by them at the time, but memory isn't always reliable. In fact, the story is intriguing, well-written, with an interesting twist at the end and a strong component of social commentary that is as relevent today as to the time period in which the story i...more
Speedtribes
This the first volume that introduces the character Detective Thomas Pitt. I found, as is with most of her books, Perry's strengths lie more in the description of class issues and the difficulty of navigating various social norms. Her mysteries are less who-dunnits, than social commentaries with a murder attached to it. In this first volume, there someone is garroting good, honest women to death and families have taken to hiding their daughters away in fear.

The unconventional and s...more
JayeL
JayeL rated it 3 of 5 stars
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jen
Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars
This is the first time I've read an Anne Perry novel and I was pleasantly surprised. The novel takes place during the Victorian age where the author brings out the social norms/mores for women and social classes during that era. The book centers around young women being found murdered just down the street from the Ellison household on Cater Street. This is the first in a series of novels featuring the characters of Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, the high-bred daughter of an upper-c...more
Jaime
How can I not like this? It combines two of my favorite things… historical fiction and a murder mystery! It’s set in Victorian-era England, and I think all the intricacies of social life at that time are well portrayed. It must have been so stressful living at that time and always worrying if you’re doing and saying the right things! It seemed to me that the worst thing one could do was be “impertinent”.

I’m not sure how I feel about Anne Perry’s somewhat sordid past, but I really enj...more
Tracy
Tracy rated it 3 of 5 stars
Anne Perry is decidedly formulaic. This novel proceeded as planned: we have several possible suspects whose vie as the culprit, the seeds of doubt are sewn about nearly everyone our characters know, and the actual murderer ends up being a crazy person that the characters admired/loved/had affection for. Pretty much the one person that receives the most attention (pages in the book) outside family relations is the culprit. If the person is generally liked, it's all the more likely to be them. ...more
Lightreads
A lengthy set of Victorian mysteries featuring Charlotte, the daughter of a well-to-do family, and Inspector Pitt of the police. The Cater Street Hangman is about a series of murders that take place in Charlotte’s wealthy neighborhood (thus introducing our protagonists to each other). It’s all about exposing the hypocrisies and secrets behind the glittering façades of wealthy families. Callander Square is about a series of killings in an upper-class neighborhood – it’s all about exposing the hyp...more
Kathy Davie
First in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt historical mystery series set in Victorian England in 1881.

The Story
A number of murders committed by the same person brings Inspector Thomas Pitt to the Ellison household with questions regarding the victims. Naturally, being a respectable household, the Ellisons clam up. Then one of the household becomes a murder victim and Pitt becomes a regular, if mostly unwanted, fixture.

And so the summer winds into fall with few clues but leav...more
Rhonda
I read the 2011 Open Road ebook edition of this book. This is the first book I have read of hers but won't be the last. I was into the characters I really like charlotte and her sisters.
Charlotte is reading the paper in secret because her father thinks that their is only a little on the news fit for women and he will read it to them. So she reads them when the servants put it away for them to read so at least its a day old by the time she can read it.
Charlotte has a crush on her sist...more
Tracey
Tracey rated it 2 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2011
Adult fiction; period drama. This is not so much a mystery as it is a novel set during a time of terror wreaked by a serial killer, since there is very little sleuthing done but rather a lot of hand wringing and arguing amongst family members (sister rivalries! marital transgressions!), until finally the main character is attacked (and thus the murderer's identity is finally discovered, and there the book just ends). The book deals quite a bit with the inequalities in moral standards for men vs....more
Susan Anderson
The Cater Street Hangman, the first book in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt historical mystery series, introduces a set of characters, many of whom will continue throughout the next twenty-nine Pitt novels. The story takes place in 1881 and the author, Anne Perry, paints a rich portrait of late nineteenth-century London society, weaving actual places and historical events into the plot. The major theme deals with the duplicity and stultifying mores of Victorian society.

The business of mu...more
Nicole
Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars
I had read the first two or three books in this series several years ago at the recommendation of a friend, and I found them okay, but not terrific. Recently, something brought the character of Inspector Pitt to mind, and I decided to revisit the novels. Unfortunately, what I'm most interested in, namely, the relationship between Pitt and Charlotte, doesn't really get a huge amount of attention in the books, at least so far. (At the time of this writing, I've read the first three.) Working out t...more
T.E. Macarthur
I've read nearly all the Charlotte Pitt mysteries and love them. I have noticed however that the further along in the series we go, the less of Charlotte and the more of Thomas we get. Thomas Pitt is a wonderful character but the balance between the two is what makes me love the books.

Ms. Perry has an extraordinary skill with printed accents. We can hear the very pronounciations as we read them. Her turn of phrase is exceptional, giving one a sense of Victorian England without be...more
Maze Branch
This review is by Donna:

This is the first in a mystery series (currently at 25 books) starring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. Thomas is a police officer, a career thought of as no better than the household servants by the upper classes in late Victorian London. Charlotte is a daughter in one of those upper class families. Not only is this a good series of mystery stories, but the details of Victorian life bring an added component to the books. Perry is noted for the accuracy of these...more
Rosanne Lortz
The Cater Street Hangman is the first novel in Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. This series was (I believe) Anne Perry’s first foray into the world of detective fiction, and the initial novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was first published in 1979.

The story is set during the late Victorian period. Its outspoken heroine, Charlotte Ellison, has had her life turned upside down as several young women of her acquaintance are strangled to death along Cater Street. Suspicions r...more
Christa
Christa rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: library
This book did not grab my attention until I was about fifty pages or so into the story. At that point, I became interested, and by the end of the book I enjoyed the story enough that I will definitely continue the series. I liked the character of Pitt, although I didn't feel we learned nearly enough about him, and I enjoyed Charlotte. Some of Charlotte's family was another matter, although I believe they reflected the time period in which the book was set. I thought that the relationship between...more
L'Orpailleuse
Cette première enquête de Thomas Pitt n'est pas si palpitante que cela, mais a le mérite de poser les bases de ce que sera la première série victorienne d'Anne Perry. On y rencontre Charlotte et sa famille, on apprend à les connaître mais pas forcément à les apprécier. Ce qui m'a le plus marquée, c'est l'ambiance générale: on se croirait bien dans le Londres de 1881, où les pires turpitudes se cachent derrière les belles façades des quartiers huppés autant que dans les recoins de la Rookerie. Ay...more
Stephanie Johnson
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Kathy Jackson
Kathy Jackson rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: Everyone
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the time period it was set in. I was not surprised by the end, I had the killer figured out way ahead of time, but I was surprised by the motive until the last chapter when I thought it was pretty evident.

The book is about a family that is of high social order. Though rich and entitled, the women in the family do their best to attend to the ill and poor, perhaps on a superficial level but still, they try according to their upbringing. ...more
Dorie
I read this book almost right after reading the first book of Perry's 'William Monk' series. As a result my expectation of what to expect in this book was completely off. At first I was disappointed but once my expectation was adjusted I enjoyed the book a lot. In the Monk series we get one perspective, the male investigator. I had anticipated this would follow the same general way of telling the story but was wrong. The story was told from several different character's perspective, none of...more
Lindsey Duncan
Though this is the first Charlotte and Inspector Pitt novel, it's the actual the second I read, because I couldn't get ahold of this one initially. It took a bit of secondhand bookstore trawling to find, but turned out to be well worth the hunt. If you are interested in reading and enjoying this book, I highly recommend you don't read later in the series first: I had some of the twists and turns spoiled for me because I had read "Callander Square" not too long ago. Especially becau...more
Sarah
Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars
I wanted to begin at the beginning with Charlotte and Pitt in order to get a feel for who they were and what they were about. The story was slow to build momentum and the inner voices of some of the characters seemed unnecessary at times. The only really engaging scenes involved the confrontations between Charlotte and her scruffy inspector, where the various ends of the plot were brought together slowly so that the reader could digest them and so that their budding relationship (not entirely be...more
Scot
Scot rated it 4 of 5 stars
Okay, I was between a 3 and a 4 star rating on this one. Negative points: I found the flurry of resolved relationships at the close too convenient and the climax/ending too predictable. The story developed slowly, but the author was establishing the first volume in what would be a long, long series, so some careful crafting of character nuance, and a distinct distinguishing of the personalities of the three Ellison sisters was understandable.

Positive points: the plot is subservie...more
Monica!
In further adventures of Monica Reading Mysteries, I decided to give Cater Street Hangman a try. Final thoughts... are mixed. Certainly it was well written. You could practically see the flickering gaslights and smell the, um, horse manure? Is that what one would smell on a traditional Victorian street? And there are perky little pickpockets, and fire-and-brimstone-spewing vicars, and vicious grandmothers, and gentlemen’s clubs, and endless cups of tea. Anyway, it all seems very realistic,...more
Anne Hawn Smith
This is the first Charlotte and Thomas Pitt book and I thought it was excellent. Suddenly, several young girls have been killed with a garrote and all were found on Cater Street. Two were servants and two were young ladies who lived on Cater St. It seems to be the work of a madman, but possibly the madman may not even know he or she is the killer.

The story is told mainly from the point of view of Charlotte and like other of Anne Perry's other main characters, she is spunky, reason...more
Darla
Darla rated it 4 of 5 stars
(Genre:Adult fiction/Mystery) For some unknown and unfathomable reason, I really felt in the mood for a good murder mystery. I wanted a book where you don't know who the bad guy is and you feel uptight and nervous, watching the clues come to light for the characters. This fit perfectly, since there were many potential and valid suspects to choose from. I had been told by a friend how much she liked Anne Perry and I can see why. The story is set in Victorian England and the author did a great jo...more
AnnaMay
Perry did a good job of delving into the dual moral expectations of men vs. women in the Victorian era. I didn't clap with glee at the end of the book like I do in the Monk ones, but I really enjoyed the story and plan to read all 26 of them :).

The ending (not the murder plot ending, but the relationship plot) came up a bit quick for me. I would have thought Perry would have carried that relationship development into the second book. I know it presents conflict, though, which make...more
Liz
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Anna
I love it when I discover new mystery authors :D And while not as convoluted as some, it is still satisfying.We are given all the players and the same information as everyone else, and left to think it over for ourselves. Victorian England is brought vividly to life with all its grit, social divisions, and upstairs/downstairs. It's a provoking look at class structure and man-made barriers, and at relationships -- how many of our relationships are only on the surface? How well do we really know a...more
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 154 155
topics  posts  views  last activity   
ask 5 17 Oct 27, 2011 09:38am  
The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1)
L'Etrangleur de Cater street (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1)
The Cater Street Hangman (Kindle Edition)
The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1)
The Cater Street Hangman: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel (Book One)

Readers Also Enjoyed

6331
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Anne Perry (born Juliet Hulme) is a British historical novelist.

Juliet took the name "Anne Perry", the latter being her stepfather's surname. Her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was published under this name in 1979. Her works gener...more
More about Anne Perry...
The Face of a Stranger (William Monk, #1) Callander Square Paragon Walk A Dangerous Mourning (William Monk, #2) Resurrection Row

Share This Book

Your website
Pin It

What's The Name of That Book???
What's The Name of That B...
3594 members
last activity 2 hours, 6 min ago
shelf: read
Clean Reads
Clean Reads
558 members
last activity Feb 07, 2012 07:12am
shelf: read
Historical Mystery Lovers
Historical Mystery Lovers
238 members
last activity Feb 02, 2012 02:29pm
shelf: read