- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (1 Dec 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006498175
- ISBN-13: 978-0006498179
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 315,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
The most heinous of crimes - treason. Pitt is up against the most sensitive and politically demanding case of his career, in which a traitor is at work in the Colonial Office. The field of suspects is limited to a handful of highly distinguished public servants.
From the Back Cover
THE MOST HEINOUS OF CRIMES: TREASON
Superintendent Thomas Pitt of Bow Street is up against the most sensitive and politically demanding case of his career. There is a traitor at work in the Colonial Office, passing confidential information to the German Embassy, and the expansion of the Empire is at stake. The field of suspects is limited to a handful of highly distinguished public servants, all with formidable reputations to maintain, all with considerable power to defend themselves from intrusive investigations.
Simultaneously, Pitt is quietly looking into the death of his childhood mentor, who has apparently taken an overdose of laudanum. What possible connection can there be to the hidden traitor? Pitt begins to wonder if personal grief is clouding his judgement, as he can find no way forward. It takes a second sensational death to reveal the tangled truth, and to put at risk not only Pitt’s life but that of his wife, Charlotte.
“What distinguishes Perry’s books is her incisive and imaginative analysis of character and conscience”
THE LADY
“Intriguing”
OXFORD TIMES
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
from beginning to the end -full of historical knowledge and surprises to the last page
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Middling entry in long-running series
29 Aug 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a fairly late installment in Anne Perry`s long series of mystery novels set in late Victorian England (1890, in the present case.) These novels feature Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, he a policeman (just promoted to Superindent), and she an upper-class woman who married shockingly beneath herself, but who maintains a limited entree to society, useful in helping Thomas with cases involving crimes among the upper class.
Traitor`s Gate features Thomas much more prominently than Charlotte. Thomas` surrogate father, Sir Arthur Desmond, the owner of the estate for which Thomas` actual father was the gamekeeper, has died in his club in London. The death is ruled accidental, or suicide, but his son Matthew, Thomas` close boyhood friend, is convinced it must have been murder, and asks Thomas to investigate.
Thomas is unable to officially investigate Desmond`s death, but rather fortuitously he is asked to investigate a case of missing information at the Colonial Office, to do with Africa and with British support for Cecil Rhodes. As it turns out, Arthur Desmond, formerly employed in the Foreign Office, had just prior to his death been making "wild" accusations of abuse of power in the government support of Rhodes. Naturally, Desmond`s death and the missing information are linked, and, more importantly, both are linked to the mysterious organization Thomas has run afoul of in previous books, The Inner Circle.
As Pitt`s investigations continue, his own life and Matthew`s are threatened, another murder is committed, and finally Pitt`s discoveries trigger a chain reaction of suicides and murders, ending somewhat in medias res with Pitt apparently ready to openly take on the Inner Circle.
The story is entertaining, and the solutions to the crimes are reasonably clever and interesting. However I don`t rank this as highly as the best books in the series for a few reasons. The Inner Circle has become non-credible to me, in its villainy, and its apparent size and power, not to say the incompetence of such a powerful organization in dealing with such a minor figure as Pitt. Pitt`s solutions to the crimes take on the all-too-familiar form of confronting the criminal with the (often rather sparse) evidence of his wrongdoing, upon which he either confesses or commits suicide. The device of having Pitt assigned to investigate a case of espionage is rather unconvincing. Also, the key crime of the book (the second murder) is not only difficult to credit as far as motive is concerned, but is committed in a foolish manner which seems calculated to ultimately draw attention to the murderer (indeed Thomas is misled rather more than I think he should be).
Finally, a key element of the enjoyment of this series is the ongoing stories of the advancing social life of the continuing characters. The books generally feature a love story or two, and this is no exception, but I didn`t find the love stories very involving. And as I said, Charlotte`s role in this book is minor, which is understandable for this book, but something of a drawback nonetheless.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Less is More
4 Jun 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Fine book for fans with an interesting look into Thomas's life before London, but not one I would recommend for someone new to the series. Too many characters and a complicated (and boring) plot about the exploitation of Africa by Europeans. I had a hard time sticking to it and I don't usually struggle to get through Perry's work. Really not one of her best.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
An undemanding romp through Victorian society
25 Dec 1998
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a late entry in the author's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series and is best appreciated by longtime fans, who will enjoy meeting familiar faces enough to forgive the dullish plotting. Newer readers will be charmed by Perry's vivid characters and her knack of contrasting their real selves with the requirements of Victorian society -- but the dramatic tension this usually generates is missing here, except in a couple of scenes near the end. A fun read, but not an involving one.
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