The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry

The Cater Street Hangman

by Anne Perry

Publication Date: 1979

Number of Pages: 287

ISBN: 9780449208670

In this Mystery novel, a murderer is on the loose in Victorian London, causing tensions throughout the neighborhood.  When three young women are murdered near Cater Street, Inspector Thomas Pitt, a police inspector, begins to investigate the serial murders.  Fate brings him to the doorstep of the novel’s main character, Charlotte Ellison, a well-bred young woman whose frank conversation skirts the very edge of Victorian propriety, which only makes her more attractive to the intelligent young inspector.  A young maid from the Ellison household was the fourth victim, and as Pitt’s investigation progress, the Ellison family members and their staff begin to discover that they didn’t know one another nearly as well as they thought.  This novel deals frequently with the social expectations of “respectable” women during the Victorian period, bringing their world to life while simultaneously shining a light on the inequities they face. 

This novel moves along at a leisurely pace for almost three hundred pages, offering a nuanced presentation of daily household life, punctuated by moments of discovery as the investigation unfolds.  Pitt frequently stops by the Ellison household to question various household members, during which he takes the time to explain his developing investigation to Charlotte, while also developing a social relationship between them.  The story is made more compelling by the inclusion of numerous well-developed secondary characters; each of them has an important role to play in the story’s progression.  Only the most careful and intuitive reader will discover the true culprit before the novel’s final scene; Perry’s narration will keep you guessing until the very end. 

The Cater Street Hangman is the first book in an extended series of mysteries featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt.  The twenty-ninth installment, Death on Blackheath, is due out in March 2014.    The Cater Street Hangman was also turned into a made-for-television movie with the same title in 1998. 

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If you enjoyed The Cater Street Hangman, you might also enjoy these mysteries set in Victorian England:

Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas

While more humorous in tone than The Cater Street Hangman, this novel is a reimagining of the world of Sherlock Holmes featuring Irene Adler as the main character.  In this novel, the first in a series of eight, Irene Adler is a strong heroine that certainly keeps pace with the famous Sherlock Holmes.  

Death at Bishop’s Keep by Robin Paige

This novel also features a strong-minded heroine, though Kate Adrleigh is an American mystery novelist visiting relatives in England.  While there, she stumbles upon a murder investigation, which places her in the path of amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan, and the two begin to compete to see who can solve the mystery first.  Death at Bishop’s Keep is the first in a twelve book series. 

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry

While similar in style to the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery series, the William Monk mystery series is set thirty years earlier and features a detective afflicted with amnesia, who simultaneously attempts to solve a difficult murder case as well as the mystery of his own identity.  With equal parts psychological exploration and crime solving, with a bit of romance thrown in, this first novel in a nineteen novel series is a great compliment to The Cater Street Hangman.