Rising barrister Daniel Pitt reluctantly accepts a case that entangles him with a professional adversary as formidable as he is unscrupulous. Jessie Beale assures Daniel that despite all the evidence against him, her boyfriend, Rob Adwell, didn't bludgeon Paddy Jackson, his sometime partner in crime, or set fire to the warehouse they'd planned to rob, the place where Paddy's body was found. Desperate for an expert witness to refute the medical testimony, Daniel and Miriam fford Croft, the daughter of his head of chambers, who's partnered with him in two earlier cases (Triple Jeopardy, 2019, etc.), ask Sir Barnabas Saltram, the forensic pathologist who discouraged Miriam from pursuing her medical studies 20 years ago, to examine Jackson's corpse, assuming that his nonpareil reputation will give whatever alternative theory of the crime he advances well-nigh irrefutable status. Their plan works all too well. Bolstered by Saltram's testimony, Adwell is found not guilty, setting the stage for his own death in a remarkably similar arson two months later. Jessie Beale, who all but confesses her guilt to Daniel, smilingly tells him that Saltram's testimony will surely get her off as well--especially since the distinguished expert couldn't possibly refuse to testify, because that would indicate he had doubts about his theory of Rob Adwell's death. Now Daniel labors to do everything he can to get his own client convicted while giving every public sign of mounting a vigorous defense. And the ancient case in which Saltram first proposed the theory Daniel used as Adwell's brief offers still more twists before the curtain comes crashing down. Reliable Edwardian legal suspense, liberally flavored with contemporary feminism, from an old pro. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

When Rob Adwell is accused of murder and subsequently setting a fire to hide the crime, his girlfriend pleads with lawyer Daniel Pitt for help. Daniel turns to friend Miriam fford Croft, an accomplished scientist, who shows that an accidental fire caused the victim's death. But Rob's violent death in a similar blaze calls everything into question. Third in the new series spun off from Perry's long-standing Victorian London-set "Charlotte and Thomas Pitt" mysteries, with their son Daniel here at the helm.

An underdeveloped lead and a familiar setup mar bestseller Perry's uneven third early 20th-century legal thriller starring Daniel Pitt (after 2019's Triple Jeopardy). Daniel, a young lawyer who's the son of the author's longtime series leads, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, is approached by Jessie Beale, who hopes he'll represent her gangster boyfriend, Rob Adwell, who's facing murder charges. Rob and Paddy Jackson, a member of a rival criminal gang, were in a warehouse on the London docks when it somehow caught fire. Rob managed to escape, but Paddy's corpse was found in the ruins. Though Jessie claims Paddy burned to death, the police surgeon later discloses to Daniel that Paddy suffered a fatal blow that cracked his skull open. Daniel manages to persuade his superiors to take up the defense, despite Jessie's penury. Some clever surprises emerge as Daniel battles to achieve justice and maintain his own ethical standards. This series lacks the emphasis on political and social issues that lends weight to Perry's William Monk mysteries. Hopefully, Perry will provide more substance in the next installment. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary. (Apr.)

Perry has written an astonishing number of historical mysteries: 32 novels in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series and 24 in the William Monk series, all of them set in Victorian England. Now, she's on her third series, this one with a "son of" premise in which Daniel Pitt, a young barrister and the son of Thomas and Charlotte, gets involved in solving crimes. Perry has extended her time frame here, with this third installment in Daniel's series taking place in 1910, but she has kept all the ornate dialogue and the London atmospherics--the city's dark underbelly, usually encased in fog. This time a woman seeks Daniel's help in clearing her boyfriend, accused of murdering his friend and then setting fire to the warehouse in which they met. Then the boyfriend himself is found murdered in the same way. Daniel's consultant, a brilliant female scientist, brings in a great deal of forensics concerning arson and cracked skulls. The forensics provide a nice touch, but the plot is a bit plodding. Still, longtime Perry fans are in for the long haul.