Library Journal Review
This 1981 mystery, the fourth in the long-running series featuring Inspector Thomas Pitt and his well-born wife, Charlotte, is one of the best for its balance between the mystery itself and Perry's scathing portrait of Victorian society. It is bad enough that the recently deceased Lord Fitzroy-Hammond has been removed from his grave, but when it happens a second time and then other buried corpses start popping up, the normally unflappable Pitt is puzzled indeed. Is the perpetrator trying to hide a murder or call attention to one? The answer lies in a convoluted but perfectly logical merging of art, blackmail, politics, pornography, and prostitution. Perry (Paragon Walk) delights in showing how much of London, except for a handful of influential citizens, chose to ignore the shameful poverty surrounding them. This provocative tale, extremely well read by Davina Porter, is highly recommended for popular collections. Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.