Julietta's review

Seven Dials: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel
by Anne Perry

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72766.Seven_Dials_A_Charlotte_and_Thomas_Pitt_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Seven Dials: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170818700m/72766.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72766.Seven_Dials_A_Charlotte_and_Thomas_Pitt_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Seven Dials: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6331.Anne_Perry">Anne Perry</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8271393?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars Okay, I admit the Charlotte and William Pitt books are my guilty pleasures, but for crime novels they beat the hell out of James "Schlock" Patterson, and here's why: They're carefully researched and historically accurate in terms of what was going on in England from the late 1800's through the turn of the century, including rich language and archaic terms. The characters are lovable--Charlotte Pitt, the policeman's feminist wife who "marries down" but through her high-society connections helps her husband solve the crimes; her savvy policeman husband who comes from working-class roots which regularly earn him the disdain of the snobby ruling class as he investigates their business; and the various relatives and relationships that grow richer with each book. The mysteries are riveting quick reads, and I don't mind anymore that the author, Anne Perry helped murder her best friend's mum in June 1954 (THAT story was the subject of the film "Heavenly Creatures" with Kate Winslet). <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Perry">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...</a>
 
 Anne Perry herself says, "I was born in Blackheath, London England in October 1938. At that time my name was Juliet Hulme, but after the tragedies and errors of my childhood about which I have already said all there is to say, I took my stepfather's name of Perry, and Anne Perry is not a pen name but my legal and only name.
 
 I have been asked questions occasionally about the film, 'Heavenly Creatures', but I cannot answer them. Neither I nor my family and friends knew anything about it until the day before it was released, and I have preferred not to see it, or comment on the accuracy or otherwise of any part of it. I am very grateful to that vast majority of generous people who allow me to move on and leave that grief behind."
 
 Reading her novels is a bit like the dilemma of whether to read "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter. That book was touted as an autobiography but was instead a fiction created by Asa Earl Carter (his real name), a racist, segregationist, anti-Semitic Ku-Klux-Klan member who was a writer for George Wallace. The book is great, the author was, well, a pig. See what I mean? The bottom line question is, "Should an author's personal history be the determining factor on the quality of a novel?" Decide for yourself.
 
 BTW, I have the last 8 Charlotte and William Pitt novels to swap. The last one, Long Spoon Lane, is hardcover, the others mass market paperbacks. (And the newest book, Buckingham Palace Gardens, is due out March 2008.)
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/141678?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Julietta's review
rating:

Okay, I admit the Charlotte and William Pitt books are my guilty pleasures, but for crime novels they beat the hell out of James "Schlock" Patterson, and here's why: They're carefully researched and historically accurate in terms of what was going on in England from the late 1800's through the turn of the century, including rich language and archaic terms. The characters are lovable--Charlotte Pitt, the policeman's feminist wife who "marries down" but through her high-society connections helps her husband solve the crimes; her savvy policeman husband who comes from working-class roots which regularly earn him the disdain of the snobby ruling class as he investigates their business; and the various relatives and relationships that grow richer with each book. The mysteries are riveting quick reads, and I don't mind anymore that the author, Anne Perry helped murder her best friend's mum in June 1954 (THAT story was the subject of the film "Heavenly Creatures"...more Okay, I admit the Charlotte and William Pitt books are my guilty pleasures, but for crime novels they beat the hell out of James "Schlock" Patterson, and here's why: They're carefully researched and historically accurate in terms of what was going on in England from the late 1800's through the turn of the century, including rich language and archaic terms. The characters are lovable--Charlotte Pitt, the policeman's feminist wife who "marries down" but through her high-society connections helps her husband solve the crimes; her savvy policeman husband who comes from working-class roots which regularly earn him the disdain of the snobby ruling class as he investigates their business; and the various relatives and relationships that grow richer with each book. The mysteries are riveting quick reads, and I don't mind anymore that the author, Anne Perry helped murder her best friend's mum in June 1954 (THAT story was the subject of the film "Heavenly Creatures" with Kate Winslet). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

Anne Perry herself says, "I was born in Blackheath, London England in October 1938. At that time my name was Juliet Hulme, but after the tragedies and errors of my childhood about which I have already said all there is to say, I took my stepfather's name of Perry, and Anne Perry is not a pen name but my legal and only name.

I have been asked questions occasionally about the film, 'Heavenly Creatures', but I cannot answer them. Neither I nor my family and friends knew anything about it until the day before it was released, and I have preferred not to see it, or comment on the accuracy or otherwise of any part of it. I am very grateful to that vast majority of generous people who allow me to move on and leave that grief behind."

Reading her novels is a bit like the dilemma of whether to read "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter. That book was touted as an autobiography but was instead a fiction created by Asa Earl Carter (his real name), a racist, segregationist, anti-Semitic Ku-Klux-Klan member who was a writer for George Wallace. The book is great, the author was, well, a pig. See what I mean? The bottom line question is, "Should an author's personal history be the determining factor on the quality of a novel?" Decide for yourself.

BTW, I have the last 8 Charlotte and William Pitt novels to swap. The last one, Long Spoon Lane, is hardcover, the others mass market paperbacks. (And the newest book, Buckingham Palace Gardens, is due out March 2008.)...less

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Julietta's books »