Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted Anne Perry, whose Daniel Pitt novels are spin-offs of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries. Perry’s latest novel is Death with a Double Edge. You can order Perry’s books through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2oJJzhL
Here’s the summary of Death with a Double Edge.
Daniel Pitt’s investigation into his colleague’s murder leads him through London’s teeming underbelly to the suspicious dealings of one of England’s most influential shipbuilding magnates in a thrilling novel from New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry.
When junior barrister Daniel Pitt is summoned to the scene of a murder in the London district known as Mile End, he knows only that the victim is a senior barrister from the same firm. To Daniel’s relief, it is not his close friend Toby Kitteridge, but the question remains: What was this respected colleague doing in such a rough part of the city? The firm’s head, Marcus fford Croft, may know more than he admits, but fford Croft’s memory is not what it used to be, and his daughter, Miriam—Daniel’s sometime sidekick—isn’t in the country to offer her usual help. And so Daniel and Kitteridge must investigate on their own, lest the police uncover something that may cast a suspicious light on the firm.
Their inquiries in Mile End lead them to a local brothel and to an opium den, but also—unexpectedly—to a wealthy shipbuilder crucial to Britain’s effort to build up its fleet, which may soon face the fearsome naval might of Germany. Daniel finds his path blocked by officials at every turn, his investigation so unwelcome that even his father, Special Branch head Thomas Pitt, receives a chilling warning from a powerful source. Suddenly, not just Daniel but his whole family—including his beloved mother, Charlotte—is in danger. Will Daniel’s devotion to justice be the undoing of his entire life, and endanger Britain’s defense at sea? As ever, the fates of family and history are inextricably intertwined in this spellbinder from Anne Perry.
Anne Perry is the New York Times bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including Dark Tide Rising and An Echo of Murder, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Murder on the Serpentine and Treachery at Lancaster Gate. She is also the author of a series featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt’s son, Daniel, including Death with a Double Edge and One Fatal Flaw; the new Elena Standish series, including A Question of Betrayal and Death in Focus; five World War I novels; eighteen holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Resolution; and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Ottoman Empire. Anne Perry lives in Los Angeles.
Enjoy the discussion with Barbara Peters and Anne Perry.