- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (4 Dec 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006479138
- ISBN-13: 978-0006479130
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 337,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"Gripping and intense...Her characters are authentically and appealingly drawn, and her plot is sinister."
BOOKLIST
When a distinguished judge dies of opium poisoning, the crucifixion five years before of Kingsley Blaine is brought back into the public eye, and it is screaming for revenge. The police had arrested a Jewish actor, who was soon condemend to hang.
Police Inspector Thomas Pitt, investigating the judge's death, is drawn into the sensational murder, because it appears the judge was about to reopen the earlier case. He receives curiously little help from his colleagues on the force, but his wife, Charlotte, gleans from her social engagements startling insights into the women in both cases. And slowly both Thomas and Charlotte begin to reach the same sinister and deeply dangerous truth....
SELECTED BY THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
BOOKLIST
When a distinguished judge dies of opium poisoning, the crucifixion five years before of Kingsley Blaine is brought back into the public eye, and it is screaming for revenge. The police had arrested a Jewish actor, who was soon condemend to hang.
Police Inspector Thomas Pitt, investigating the judge's death, is drawn into the sensational murder, because it appears the judge was about to reopen the earlier case. He receives curiously little help from his colleagues on the force, but his wife, Charlotte, gleans from her social engagements startling insights into the women in both cases. And slowly both Thomas and Charlotte begin to reach the same sinister and deeply dangerous truth....
SELECTED BY THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB
From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
JUSTICE ON TRIAL
Inspector Pitt is enjoying an all-too-rare night out at the theatre when, in a neighbouring box, Judge Stafford collapses. Investigations prove that he has been poisoned by opium. Suspicion initially falls on the immediate family, but Pitt soon discovers another powerful motive: Stafford had been re-examining one of his old cases, the controversial hanging of a Jewish actor.
Pitt finds himself embroiled in a hunt for a devious murderer whilst needing to avoid causing offence to the honour of the judiciary. Adding to his dilemma is the powerful streak of anti-Semitism in Society – a seemingly impossible situation, until the aristocratic Charlotte Pitt uses her connections to weave behind the hypocrisies and reveal the vital evidence.
"Sophisticated characterisation and psychological suspense… the result is first-rate"
NEW YORK TIMES
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Readers who love mystery can often become frustrated with the seemingly endless ranks of homogenous policemen that populate their fictional world, often differing from each other only in their idiosyncrasies or the names of their subordinates. What a pleasure it is then, to read a novel with a difference and from the moment I started Anne Perry's "Farrier's Lane" it was quite clear that the Victorian world of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt was one that could engage my imagination more than the modern day gangland dens of Manchester or the dreaming spires of Oxford.
A prominent judge dies of opium poisoning while spending an evening at the theatre and Inspector Pitt's chance presence results in him leading the subsequent investigation. Realising the judge had recently become concerned with the safety of the verdict in a horrific murder case from some years earlier, Pitt comes to believe that the latest death could be connected to the earlier one even though the original perpetrator, a Jewish actor, had long since hanged for his crime. Together with his wife, Charlotte, a woman possessed of both charm and cunning in equal measure, he sets about his investigation but finds that the manners of Victorian society and its citizens' racist views on Jews place a considerable obstacle in his path to the killer.
Mystery and character are equal partners in Perry's writing. Lovers of a good 'whodunit' will not be disappointed with the twists and turns of the plot, neither will readers who like to bond with their literary heroes as Thomas and Charlotte Pitt are a very likeable duo who complement each other perfectly. The atmosphere of turn of the century London is so absorbing and tangible that you can almost feel yourself shrouded in a cold blanket of East End fog and hear the Hansom carriages clatter along the streets. I shall certainly be reading more from this most refreshing series.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm a fan of Anne Perry and "Farriers' Lane" doesn't disappoint. The who-dunnit is full of Victorian period detail and I learn so much about the life and times of the fledgling Metropolitan Police Force and the River Police. It makes a change that there isn't a nagging policeman's wife (indeed Charlotte helps him with his cases - and solves this one!), and that the underling (Pitt) actually gets on and likes/respects his chief. An excellent read with a surprise endings.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
This one baffled me! One of the best in the Pitt series
18 July 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Even though I'm familiar with Anne Perry's rhythms as a writer, her characters, her fascination with the secrets people keep, and her addiction to slipping messages about today's prejudices into her books on 19th-century England, I thoroughly enjoyed Farrier's Lane, and was baffled until the very end!
While Thomas and Charlotte Pitt enjoy a rare night at the theatre, an appeals court judge dies of a seeming heart attack in a nearby box. However, the death is much more suspicious than it seemed at first and opium poisoning is suspected. But who would poison Judge Stafford? There are many suspects: his wife Juniper, his wife's lover, or even people involved in a five-year old case in Farrier's Lane. No matter how hard Thomas Pitt tries to solve the case by exploring more up-to-date possibilities, Charlotte continues to be preoccupied with a murder and crucifixion in Farrier's Lane. Ugly motives like anti-Semitism and the rush to judgement eventually disclose the murderer of Judge Stafford and the miscarriage of justice that happened five years earlier.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Hang someone to quiet the public
12 Jun 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This novel is somewhat slow reading, perhaps because there seems to be an excess of extraneous details, e.g., you may learn more than you want about baking fruitcakes. On the other hand, some details related to the case never seem to be fully explained. The plot is somewhat transparent for a whodunit, i.e., you can guess the identity of villains before they are exposed.
The setting is London in 1889. Five years earlier a brutal murder had outraged the public. Police were previously criticized for not catching Jack the Ripper. Pressures for an arrest in this case led to the conviction and hanging of a Jewish actor. Anti-semitism had run high with attacks on Jews and Jewish owned businesses. Now questions have been raised.
A Justice who had served on the appeals court for the case is looking into it again. When he dies during a theatre performance, Inspector Thomas Pitt is assigned to investigate, and he re-examines the old case the Justice was reviewing. There is strong pressure not to rock the boat. A reversal in the five-year old case would embarass many people from individual policemen to Justices of the appeals court. Some surprising facts are revealed as the case draws to its conclusion. As a sidelight, Charlotte's maid Gracie acquires a young admirer.
Like other novels in this series, we are provided with a picture of Victorian era society in London. The novel has some amount of violence and some references to sexual encounters.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
One of the most successful of the series
23 April 2008
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is the thirteenth outing for Inspector Thomas Pitt of the Metropolitan Police in London of 1890 -- and also his last before being promoted to Superintendent of the Bow Street station. The social theme this time (Perry always includes one) is the superstitious viciousness of Victorian antisemitism and the violence that sometimes resulted. Five years before, a gentleman was not only murdered in a blacksmith's yard at night, he was crucified to the stable door with horseshoe nails. Only a Jew would do that, right? Public horror, combined with a rush to judgment on the part of the police and the courts, results in the hanging of an actor whose sister has been agitating ever since to prove him innocent. Then Pitt nearly witnesses the death by poisoning of one of the appeals court judges at the theatre one evening, and the whole thing has to be reopened, whether anyone likes it or not. His wife, Charlotte, takes part together with her mother, Caroline (sister Emily is off in the country, pregnant) -- who has also developed an unfortunate attachment to another Jewish actor, about which Charlotte is naturally upset. The investigation of what eventually becomes three murders is interestingly done -- and without the deus ex machina of the Inner Circle, this time.
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