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Thomas and Charlotte Pitt are faced with a complex and critical mystery in DORCHESTER TERRACE, the latest Anne Perry novel. Newly promoted to head of Britain's Special Branch, an organization like the FBI, Thomas discovers a series of seemingly unrelated events that lead him to believe a visiting Austrian duke's life may be in jeopardy. Anarchists have been spotted at key railroad crossings and have been identified asking questions about train schedules. Pitt must make sure that no train wreck or assassination takes place on his watch. However, he is hopelessly lacking in confidence and his humble origins in this class-conscious society work against him. His superiors seem to want him to fail, or at least do not have the respect for him needed to take his suspicions seriously. Charlotte is happy to be back in the society of her younger days, but Pitt is not fully at ease in the halls of wealth and power. Meanwhile, an old Italian woman, Serafina Montserrat, is dying. In her youth, she was a rebel--a swash buckling, horseback riding, free-loving revolutionary. She was a romantic figure, involved with plots and intrigue amongst the highest ranks of Croatia, the Balkans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now she is fearful that her mind is wandering and she may inadvertently give away secrets of the past. The relevance of these secrets to the present may be real or may be figments of her diminished mental condition. Also, her state becomes a way for the author to examine ideas on aging as various characters look at Serafina's deterioration and at their own lives in relation to this theme. Charlotte's aunt Vespasia, who had been involved in freedom movements in her younger days, wishes to help her old acquaintance Serafina and to discover if there is any real basis for fear in the present. Vespasia, Thomas, Charlotte and Victor Narraway, Pitt's predecessor, all work in various ways to uncover the growing connections between Montserrat and the threat on the duke's life. Charlotte has befriended a young woman named Adriana Blantyre whose husband and tragic past also seem somehow linked to the dire situation unfolding. Though Pitt cannot be as open about events as he used to be before his present job, he eventually must engage Charlotte's help. In this book, Anne Perry has written an historical mystery that not only describes events in a past period but also reflects on the vagaries of the present. Anarchists who have their own hazy reasons for causing death and mayhem in this book seem not so far-removed from the terrorists we fear today. Her characters' fears of how a minor event in one country could impact other nations and lead to global war seem very modern too. As an added perspective for her reading audience, she presents a thesis about what could result from events happening at the time of the story, 1896, and we realize that it closely resembles what actually happened a couple of decades later, setting off World War I. Whether you are already a fan of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt or are new to the Victorian life and times of this couple, DORCHESTER TERRACE is an engrossing mystery that will give you much to consider about events of both the past and today. Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.
Reviewed by Anne Corey, April 2012
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