Amazon.com: Paragon Walk (Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Series Book 3) eBook : Perry, Anne: Books

As much as I like Anne Perry, this was not one of her better efforts. I did finish the book, and although the mystery in itself was really intriguing, I found I had a hard time keeping the women characters straight. Some reviewers complained about the lack of character development, however I thought there was little too much of the same explanations over & over until it was tiresome. I did find a lot of the book tedious, as if less words could have been used to get the same facts across.The ending was abrupt, but I guess there was no where else to go with it.One reviewer criticized the use of the spelling 'surprize' instead of 'surprise'; but I realized that the spelling may have been a British spelling, even though it's generally an archaic one.I had just finished reading 3 well written books: the latest of the Flavia de Luce, Maisie Dobbs & the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series. Needless to say, I enjoyed these much more & found them much more straight forward as to how events unfolded.This will not put me off any more Anne Perry (with the exception of her Christmas books, which are dull & not worth reading in my estimation). Her Monk series I have always enjoyed, no complaints. I will try another of this series before I give up.

I liked this book very much, and would recommend it to all who enjoy Ann Perry novels. Athough I must admit that I do not think it is one of her better books.The main characters, as always, are wonderfully depicted. I was particularl fond of Charlette, and Emily's interactions throughout the book.The Victorian era is a great backdrop for all of her books, and her knowledge of that time is acurate, and obvious. It adds tremendously to the story, and gives us a good glimpse at the obsticles Pitt has to face during his investigation.I particularly like the way Perry shows us how narrow minded, secretive, and supestitious Victorian society could be.As a mystery I did not think it was one of her better ones. Perry did introduce several individuals as possible perpitrators, but in spite of this it did not have that, must read on, effect that a lot of her works produce.Overall I liked the book, and would say that it is good reading for all Ann Perry fans.

This is the third book in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels by Anne Perry and I am very glad to be able to give an enthusiastic five stars as my opinion of this offering.As a fan of these Victorian era mysteries I had wondered how Ms Perry was going to proceed with the investigative directions of Charlotte and Thomas. Now, after reading three, I feel that I have a better handle on which role will be played by each character and were they fit into the overall scheme of the books. The actual plot of the book has been very well described in other reviews. I enjoyed this title because it gave almost equal roles to Thomas, Charlotte and Emily. The residents of Paragon Walk were so fully developed and wonderfully rounded out that I began to think of them as real people. Perhaps there was a degree of closeness there which began to feel slightly artificial but it was a necessary part of the whole in order to make the ending believable. Neighbors in an upper class London street would probably not have been quite so much in each others pockets, but these were and the conclusion showed why that was so. I was able to see through two episodes which took place but never dreamed of the reason behind what the central dark portion of this case was all about.I found this an absorbing read. It held my interest and kept me wanting to find out what was going on and what was going to happen next. A distraction for me was Charlotte's sudden ability and desire to leave her child in the care of someone while she made many, many, many trips away from home to investigate the case with Emily. Did Pitt not have anything to say about her sudden abandonment of her home and child to investigate? (Now see, I wanted her to be more involved in book two and was slightly dissatisfied when she was not. Now that she is more involved in book three, I'm questioning if this would have been allowed by her husband. How is an author ever supposed to satisfy us all?) Another point, suddenly Aunt Vespasia (don't you just love that name? pure Victorian!) and Emily were manufacturing clothes right and left so that Charlotte could attend funerals and other functions with them. Did Pitt not mind? Did Charlotte not feel some sense of abandoning her decision to give up all that when she married "below her station" because she loved Pitt? I can't have it both ways but there was so much emphasis on clothes this time that it became an irritant to me.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the fourth in the series, Resurrection Row. It looks as if the characters will take turns being front and center in the solving of the mysteries. This one was rushed quite a bit at the end and could have done with a lot more explanation of what happened after the solving of the case. Still liked it, though!