The Cater Street Hangman

Last updated

The Cater Street Hangman
The Cater Street Hangman.jpg
First US edition
Author Anne Perry
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Inspector Pitt Mysteries
Genre Crime fiction
Publisher Robert Hale (UK)
St. Martin's Press (US)
Publication date
1979
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages247 (First Edition, Hardcover)
ISBN 0-345-51356-8
OCLC 232980345
Followed by Callander Square  

The Cater Street Hangman is a crime novel by Anne Perry. It is the first in a series which features the husband-and-wife team of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. [1]

Contents

Plot introduction

The Cater Street Hangman introduces Inspector Thomas Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, who both become regular characters in crime novels by Anne Perry. Set in 1881, the story follows an investigation into the murders of several young women in the streets near the wealthy Ellison family home. [1]

Explanation of the novel's title

Throughout the Thomas Pitt series, Perry uses the names of real neighbourhoods in London as titles of the novels. [1]

Plot summary

In an upper-class salon on Cater Street, several women discuss, in oblique terms, the death of a local girl. Even though Susannah has recently been out of town and is unaware of the murder, it is bad form for proper women to talk about such matters and so they are careful not to say anything too direct about the way the daughter of a friend was garroted and cut open. Finally, tiring of the game, Charlotte comes out and tells her aunt what she has heard about the murder. Although the victim was of the upper class she quickly gains a reputation as having been a bad seed.

A second death occurs, this time a servant. Again the idea that these women did something to deserve this end is easier to accept than the knowledge that it could happen to anyone else. Only when the third murder happens to a member of the Ellison household do they believe that these crimes might not be a simple case of robbery or jealousy. A young police inspector, Thomas Pitt, has been investigating these crimes and soon arrives to question the Ellison household.

Pitt is the educated son of a gamekeeper and cook. His education and manners let him wander in upper-class circles, while his dress and impolite tactics keep them from becoming entirely comfortable with him. Although Pitt aspires to higher social standing, he requests that he be treated as a middle class working man. None of this endears the inspector to Caroline Ellison, the lady of the house and mother of Sarah, Emily and Charlotte Ellison. [1]

Pitt uses pointed questions and little tact to find the information he needs. He often knows the answers to questions before he speaks and so puts everyone off-guard as they attempt to keep their secrets hidden. Before long, every female suspects every male of being the hangman, much to the detriment of long-standing marriages and relationships.

As the investigation into who is killing the young women progresses, Thomas falls in love with the unconventional Charlotte. Outwardly, Charlotte is a model of Victorian society, but she does not wish to become one of the mindless women she sees every day. Instead, she reads newspapers that are smuggled out of her father's sight and speaks her mind on all manner of subjects. She finds out more about the world beyond her door when she meets Thomas and finds that he will engage her in useful and interesting discussions. [1]

Anne Perry wrote The Cater Street Hangman as a single, stand alone, novel. She had not intended for it to become a series and so there are elements in this book which do not blend smoothly into the series. [1] [2]

Characters

assistant in the investigation.

Literary significance and reception

Anne Perry's first published novel was well received in the United States for its historically accurate setting, focus on social issues and its intricate character relationships. [3] Enthusiastic reviews helped spread her readership, but it wasn't until many years later that she gained fame in her home country of England.

"An ingenious mystery and an excellent example of manners and caste systems of the Victorian era." The Chattanooga Times

References to other works

References within other works

References to actual history, geography and current science

Adaptation

In 1998 Ardent Productions produced a made-for-television film version of the book in association with Yorkshire Television. It was broadcast on ITV in Britain on 23 September 1998, and on A&E in the United States. The film departed slightly from the novel, dwelling less on seamy motives, and having a slightly different ending.

Publication history

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Brontë</span> English novelist and poet (1820–1849)

Anne Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Brontë</span> English novelist and poet (1816–1855)

Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the gender neutral pen name Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature.

<i>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall</i> 1848 novel by Anne Brontë

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel written by English author Anne Brontë. It was first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication in England until 1854.

<i>Death in the Clouds</i> 1935 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in 1935. It features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Chief Inspector Japp. It is a "closed circle" murder mystery: the victim is a passenger on a cross-Channel aircraft flight, and the perpetrator can only be one of eleven fellow-passengers and crew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brontë family</span> 19th-century literary family

The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) and Anne (1820–1849), are well-known poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories attracted attention for their passion and originality immediately following their publication. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were accepted as masterpieces of literature after their deaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Perry</span> English author (1938–2023)

Anne Perry was a British writer best known as the author of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and William Monk series of historical detective fiction.

<i>Agnes Grey</i> 1847 novel by Anne Brontë

Agnes Grey, A Novel is the first novel by English author Anne Brontë, first published in December 1847, and republished in a second edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she works within families of the English gentry. Scholarship and comments by Anne's sister Charlotte Brontë suggest the novel is largely based on Anne Brontë's own experiences as a governess for five years. Like her sister Charlotte's 1847 novel Jane Eyre, it addresses what the precarious position of governess entailed and how it affected a young woman.

<i>Shirley</i> (novel) 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë

Shirley, A Tale is a social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1849. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre. The novel is set in Yorkshire in 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry.

<i>Upstairs, Downstairs</i> (1971 TV series) British drama television series (1971–1975)

Upstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) for ITV. It ran for 68 episodes divided into five series on ITV from 1971 to 1975.

Thomas Pitt is the protagonist in a series of detective novels by Anne Perry in the first of which he meets his future wife, Charlotte Ellison. They are both involved in the investigation and solving of cases in the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Scott</span>

Sarah Scott was an English novelist, translator, social reformer, and member of the Bluestockings. Her most famous work was her utopian novel A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent, followed closely by the sequel The History of Sir George Ellison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. E. Stevenson</span> Scottish author

Dorothy Emily Stevenson was a best-selling Scottish writer. She published more than 40 "light romantic novels" over a span of more than 40 years.

<i>The Reluctant Widow</i> 1946 novel by Georgette Heyer

The Reluctant Widow is a 1946 Regency romance by Georgette Heyer, published by Heinemann in the UK, and by Putnam the following year in the US. A humorous parody of a Gothic Novel, it is set in early 1813. It was published with the description "By midnight she is a bride, by dawn a widow", and with gouache artwork by Philip Gough.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Turner (murderer)</span>

Mrs. Anne Turner, aka Mistress Anne Turner, was the widow of a respectable London doctor who was hanged at Tyburn for her role in the famous 1613 poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury referenced in the plays A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, The Widow, The World Tossed at Tennis and The City Nightcap.

<i>The Barrier</i> (1937 film) 1937 film by Lesley Selander

The Barrier is a 1937 American western adventure film directed by Lesley Selander and starring Leo Carrillo, Jean Parker and James Ellison. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1908 novel The Barrier by Rex Beach. The story was previously filmed by MGM as a silent film of the same title in 1926. Location shooting took place in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

Bread and Roses is a 1993 biographical film showing significant episodes in the political life of socialist and feminist Sonja Davies, based on her autobiography of the same name. She is portrayed from her early years to her election to the Nelson Hospital Board. Made as a Suffrage Year tribute to the women of New Zealand. Helen Martin says the film is fascinating as a social history, showing her empathy with working class women. The film was shown on television in four episodes in October 1993.

<i>A Study in Scarlet Women</i> 2016 mystery by Sherry Thomas

A Study in Scarlet Women is a mystery by Sherry Thomas. It is the first novel of Thomas' "Lady Sherlock series". In the novel, Thomas gender-flips Sherlock Holmes into Charlotte Holmes. Thomas said

"A Sherlock Holmes has the luxury of not thinking about such rules. After all, they don't interfere in his life...Charlotte Holmes has no choice but to deal with them—and how she deals with them would define the paths of her life."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rye, Marilyn. "Anne Perry." British Mystery and Thriller Writers Since 1960. Ed. Gina MacDonald. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 276. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Hennepin County Library. 5 August 2009
  2. Perry, Anne and Diana Cooper Clark. "Interview with Anne Perry." Clues. 3.2 52–65. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 126. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 52–65. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Hennepin County Library. 5 August 2009
  3. VALENZUELA. (11 August 2002). Perry balances crime fiction, short stories :[HOME Edition]. Daily Breeze, p. B2. Retrieved 6 August 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 152293291).