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Rating: 
Summary: Tiresome, Pretentious & Redundant
Review: I tried to listen to the taped version. It's 12 two-sided tapes, with an advertised running time of 15 hours and 5 minutes. After about 10 hours into a car trip, we voted unanimously to put in the last tape, just so we could satisfy our "Who dunnit?" curiosity. Alas, even that strategy was frustrated, as only one of the murders is solved on the last tape. The writer's style is both pretentious and repetitious, a deadly combination. After we had heard "lugubrious" for the third time, the groans became audible, even above the traffic noise. The writer's obvious fascination with the styles, manners and customs of London in 1890 have led her to assume that all her readers are similarly inclined. For me, they got in the way of the story... constantly! I got the book/tapes from the local library, so it was free. It still wasn't worth the price. Unless you're fascinated by the trivial aspects of living in London circa 1890, save yourself from a gruesome ordeal.
Rating:
Summary: Just Awful
Review: Just a very tedious book, with far too many extraneous details and repetition. Not a bargain at any price.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than Highgate Rise...but still needs...... what????
Review: This story was better than highgate rise. I thought it was well told. The very last few pages dragged on a little too much. I am still looking for something within the pages to make me "feel" something for the characters. There is still that undefinable something that makes you genuinely care about characters that is missing. If you have a desire to understand and connect with characters in a story, then I would not recommend this one (although sometimes you come close with Emily & Jack). If you really don't care about that aspect of this type of story, then I think it makes good reading. -Reed
Rating: 
Summary: nothing to lose your head over
Review: This Victorian mystery is plagued with writing problems. Needless dialog along the lines of "`Thank you,'" she answered" amounts to tediously obvious storytelling. It's full of frills that go nowhere; a secret-society subplot doesn't come to fruition, and the lead character is noted to carry odd items in his pocket as wan attempt to give him personality rather than as a potentially interesting plot device. There's also a lot of padding from soap-opera details of the character's lives and their progression since the last novel in the series. The mystery in itself did contain one twist, but in the main I sussed out the killer at least halfway through. Boring. So then I wanted detailed explanations, and Perry offered few--including the key question of why the bodies were dumped in the titular park. So what you're left with is Perry's agenda, which is mostly comprised of fairly sophisticated feminism and more shrill anti-classism. Hardly unique enough to be worth the trouble. A good Jack the Ripper history (and there is one good one) provides a greater wealth of period detail with more human interest and a much better mystery. --J.Ruch
Rating:
Summary: Anne Perry's contribution to the serial-killer genre
Review: What do a wife-beating Captain of the Royal Navy, a sensitive musician, a callous bus-driver and a haughty butler have in common? Their bodies are discovered in Hyde Park - decapitated. Police superviser Thomas Pitt meets two widows: one feels relieved, the other one is cheerful. We learn more details about the "inner circle" of a secret organization that controls key officials under the coat of charity. And Charlotte decorates her new house. At times Perry is in danger of trespassing Patricia Cornwell territory - no ghastly details from the morgue please! -but the scene where the ladies cross their swords with a smug wannabe Member of the Parliament is priceless. (Uttley reminds me of Paul Krendler in Thomas Harris' HANNIBAL). Not my favorite Anne Perry novel, but it will do.
Rating:
Summary: Some Chills
Review: While the killer is easily figured out (for us reading the book) the main thrust of this book is the continuing story of Pitt and his work. The benefit of reading a long series is those readers can follow a family through good years and bad, anticipating the continuation of a story line. Some of the sub-plots in this book will be continued in future volumes. I felt Charlotte and Emily were underused in this story although Perry explained that away. Not the best in the series, not the worst.
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