In Victorian England, a divisive election is fast approaching. Passions are so enflamed that Thomas Pitt, shrewd mainstay of the London police, has been ordered not to solve a crime but to prevent a national disaster. The aristocratic Tory candidate--and Pitt's archenemy--is Charles Voisey. The Liberal candidate is Aubrey Serracold, whose wife's dalliance with spiritualism threatens his chances. Indeed, she is one of the participants in a late-night seance that becomes the swan song of a stylish clairvoyant who is found brutally murdered the next morning...

The gentleman tied to the lamppost on Westminster Bridge is most elegantly attired--fresh boutonniere, silk hat, white evening scarf--and he is quite, quite dead, as a result of his thoroughly cut throat. Why should anyone kill Sir Lockwood Hamilton, the kindest of family men and most conscientious member of Parliament? Before Inspector Thomas Pitt can even speculate on the reasons, a colleague of Sir Lockwood's meets the same fate in the same spot. Public indignation is boundless, and clever Charlotte Pitt, Thomas's wellborn wife, can't resist helping her hard-pressed husband, scouting...

Not since the bloody deeds of Jack the Ripper have Londoners felt such terror as that aroused by the gruesome beheadings in Hyde Park. And if newly promoted Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt does not quickly apprehend the perpetrator, he is likely to lose his own head, professionally speaking. Yet even with the help of Charlotte Pitt's subtle investigation, the sinister violence continues unchecked. And in a shocking turn of events that nearly convinces the pair of sleuths that they have met their match, the case proves to be Pitt's toughest ever.

The murder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley should occasion no stir in Victoria s great metropolis, but under the victim s body, the police find a Hellfire Club badge inscribed with the name Finlay Fitzjames a name that instantly draws Superintendent Thomas Pitt into the case. Finlay s father immensely wealthy, powerful, and dangerous refuses to consider the possibility that his son has been in Ada McKinley s bed. The implication is clear: Pitt is to arrest someone other than Finlay Fitzjames for Ada s demise. But Thomas Pitt is not a man to be...

When a group of powerful Irish Protestants and Catholics gather at a country house to discuss Irish home rule, contention is to be expected. But when the meeting s moderator, government bigwig Ainsley Greville, is found murdered in his bath, negotiations seem doomed. Unless Superintendent Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, can root out the truth, simmering hatreds and passions may again explode in murder."

After bombs explode during an anarchist attack in Long Spoon Lane, two of the culprits are captured and the leader is shot . . . but by whom? As Thomas Pitt of the Special Branch delves into the case, he finds that there's more to the terrorism than the brutality of misguided idealists. Clues suggest that Inspector Wetron is the mastermind. As the shadowy leader of the Inner Circle, Wetron is using his influence with the press to stir up fears of more attacks and to rush a bill through Parliament that would severely curtail civil liberties. To defeat Wetron, Pitt must run in harness with...

When Inspector Thomas Pitt is asked to reopen a three-year-old murder case that had taken place in London's luxurious Hanover Close, he is all too aware that his superiors want him to simply smooth things over. But penetrating the reserve of high society households will take more finesse than Pitt can muster. Enter Charlotte Pitt, his wellborn wife, and her sister, Emily. As the social equals of the inhabitants of the Close, the women are privy to conversations that would never reach the ears of a mere policeman. What they find is a secret so shocking it will lead to more...

In a sensational breach-of-promise suit, two wealthy social climbers are suing on behalf of their beautiful daughter, Zillah. The defendant is Zillah s alleged fiance, brilliant young architect Killian Melville, who adamantly declares that he will not, "cannot, " marry her. Utterly baffled by his client s refusal, Melville s counsel, Sir Oliver Rathbone, turns to his old comrades in crime William Monk and nurse Hester Latterly. But even as they scout London for clues, the case suddenly and tragically ends, in an outcome that no one except a ruthless murderer could have foreseen."

The freshly dead body sprawled on the Bedford Square doorstep of General Brandon Balantyne is an affront to every respectable sensibility. The general denies all knowledge of the shabbily dressed victim who has so rudely come to death outside his home, but Superintendent Thomas Pitt cannot believe him for in the dead man s pocket, Pitt finds a rare snuffbox that recently graced the general s study. The superintendent must tread lightly, however, lest his investigation trigger a tragedy of immense proportions, ensnaring honorable men like flies in a web. Pitt s clever wife, Charlotte,...