6. Twenty-One Days

Twenty-One Days. (Daniel Pitt #1) Anne Perry. 2018. 303 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: They were alone in the small room where the accused was allowed to take visits with his lawyer. 

Premise/plot: Twenty-One Days is the first title in a new spin-off mystery series. It stars Daniel Pitt, the son of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. The time period is 1910. Setting still London area (I believe). When the novel opens he's defending a client for murder, but that case is super short. It isn't long before he's involved in another case or two. (Two related cases). The title comes from the fact that the trial did not go their way--their client, a Russell Graves--was declared guilty and sentenced to hang. The defense (Pitt and Kitteridge) have twenty-one days to find grounds for an appeal and potentially save his life. But both men find Graves a disgusting, obnoxious fellow--hard to like in the extreme. (His servants and children feel likewise). Can these two men prove one way or another if Russell Graves is guilty of murdering his wife, Ebony?

My thoughts: I have not read ANY of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series. My experiences with Anne Perry come from her Christmas mysteries and the Monk series. I was reading an advanced reader's copy. I don't know if there was a computer glitch (spell check/change all) causing an issue or not. But the law firm he works for was "fford Croft and Gibson." I have a hard time believing "fford" is the right name--it looks like part of a name. But that was minor--it didn't effect my enjoying this mystery.

I liked it. I did predict a major twist early on. (That is neither good or bad.) I would be interested in reading other books in the series. I'm curious if there will be recurring characters and what the overlap of characters there are between this series and the previous one. (Thomas Pitt does appear in a few scenes in this one.)

 

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