The murder of a medium with ties to a secret society within Parliament threatens to topple the government and uncork the unsavory secrets of those who sought the medium's counsel. The action in this grandly complex addition to Perry's historical mysteries starring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt follows closely from the preceding novel, The Whitechapel Conspiracy (2000), which chronicled an ingenious plot to overthrow Queen Victoria's government. Bow Street Superintendent Pitt (now assigned to the Special Branch, overseeing spies, anarchists, and political revolutionaries) once again faces his archenemy, the insidious Sir Charles Voisey, who is bent on corrupting Parliament from within by becoming an MP. Pitt's assignment is to unmask Voisey before he's elected. As always, Pitt's marriage to the aristocratic and canny Charlotte allows him access to drawings rooms and private parties, while his naturally shabby appearance and copper credentials gain him entree into London's underworld. Perry's Victorian novels attain the societal sweep of Trollope or Thackeray; she has absolute command over both political history and the small, fascinating details of everyday life. Especially noteworthy here are two women characters: Pitt's sister-in-law, an MP's wife who, in the manner of Trollope's Glencora Palliser, thrives on political plotting, and the wife of an ineffectual and arrogant bishop, greatly her inferior, who yet finds a way to affect politics. Fast moving and utterly engrossing. Connie Fletcher

Sir Charles Voisey, the traitorous head of the Inner Circle whose plan to overthrow the Crown (The Whitechapel Conspiracy, 2000) Superintendent Thomas Pitt outwitted but could not checkmate, is back with another load of mischief, running for Parliament from the historically Liberal bastion of South Lambeth. Pitt's superior, Assistant Commissioner John Cornwallis, can't imagine how Voisey will defeat his Liberal opponent, Aubrey Serracold, but smelling a rat, he keeps Pitt from leaving on his well-earned family vacation to Dartmoor and sends him instead to the new antiterrorist Special Branch, where "he was seeking not to solve a crime but to prevent a sin" by keeping one eye on Voisey's rise and the other on Serracold's possible weaknesses. No sooner does Pitt settle into the impossible task of helping prevent Voisey's election than a job presents itself for which he's much better suited: the murder of spiritualist Maude Lamont, who had been holding regular seances with Serracold's wife Rose, Major General Roland Kingsley (already the author of a full-bore attack on Serracold), and a tantalizingly elusive third party indicated in the medium's appointment book only by a cartouche. Realizing instantly the dangers to Serracold, Pitt follows a lead to Cartouche-only to set off a fiendish Inner Circle trap designed to discredit him as well. How can he possibly restore his reputation, save his family, and preserve England as he knows it from a bounder like Voisey? Perry's legion of fans will forgive her customary middle-inning longueurs among the principals' earnest friends and relations in their race toward answers most of them will already know.

Newcomers to Perry's series about Victorian police officer Thomas Pitt might be baffled by all the backstory from 2001's The Whitechapel Conspiracy in this 22nd entry, but loyal fans should hit the ground reading. Bounced from his beloved job as superintendent at the Bow Street cop shop in the political backlash of the plot against Queen Victoria that he and his aristocratic wife, Charlotte, uncovered in that last book, Pitt not only has to work for the sneaky Victor Narraway of Special Branch but must also give up a much-deserved vacation with his family to look into the murder of a society spiritualist in London's Southampton Row. It seems that Charles Voisey, head of a secret society called the Inner Circle and the man whom the Pitts stopped from coming this close to turning England into a republic (with himself as president), is now running for Parliament as a Tory against a promising Liberal candidate, Aubrey Serracold. Voisey shouldn't stand a chance unless Serracold's wife, one of the murdered medium's clients, really did knock her off. Since Charlotte spends virtually all of the book on Dartmoor, her place in the investigation is ably filled by her sister, Emily, married to another up-and-coming Liberal. As ever, excellent craftsmanship sets this series in the front rank of historical mysteries. (Mar. 1) Forecast: A 15-city author tour, national print and radio advertising as well as a sample chapter in the mass market edition of The Whitechapel Conspiracy (Jan.) should help ensure another run up bestseller lists. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Another perilous case for Thomas Pitt. His enemy Charles Voissey is running for Parliament as a Tory, and the wife of his liberal opponent was present at a sance run by a not-so-foresightful clairvoyant: she was subsequently murdered. Can Pitt solve the case and salvage the campaign? (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.