Intricate story that took a little too long to tell. Thomas Pitt endures insults and rage to uncover a sinister plot in Buckingham Palace with the assistance of his housemaid Gracie. Perry does her usual yeoman job of giving us a slice of life in 19th century England. She does a particularly nice job of showing the void between the different social classes and how they see each other. ( )

Thomas Pitt, member of the Special Services, is called to Buckingham Palace to find out who killed a prostitute and hid her body in a linen closet. The matter must be solved expediently and without any publicity!

Queen Victoria is away from the castle, but is due back in one week. The Prince of Wales has invited four men of industry to discuss the possibility of building a railroad in Africa. The wives of the men have been invited to give the appearance of a social event.

The prostitutes had been invited for the men,s enjoyment much later in the evening — after the wives had retired. The discovery of the body is to be kept secret from the guests and is to be dealt with without the help of the Prince of Wales or the police. All hush-hush and in only a week’s time.

To give Pitt and inside connection, he has Gracie, his cockney maid from home, to be hired in at the palace. She would have better access to any gossip among the staff and guests that may have seen something helpful.

Meanwhile there are familial connections between the guests and a competition to become the leader of the project.

Pitt’s persistent untangling of the slender threads, some seeming to lead nowhere, finally reveals the connections and complete picture of the crime. He also discovers a cover-up from the past along with some interesting connections among the guests.

Pitt is a man who thinks things through, rather than jump to conclusions. Sort of along the lines of Donna Leon’s Brunetti or Louse Penny’s Gamache…thinking men. ( )

Una mañana, al amanecer, aparece el cadáver de una joven prostituta brutalmente asesinada en la habitación de la ropa blanca del ala de invitados del palacio de Buckingham. Era una de las tres mujeres de la calle contratadas la noche anterior para entretener al príncipe de Gales y a sus ilustres invitados. Es imperativo resolver el caso cuanto antes y con la máxima discreción antes de que regrese la reina Victoria, que esta semana se encuentra fuera de Londres.
De ninguna manera puede trascender a la opinión pública lo que ha sucedido: la figura del príncipe de Gales, y la misma institución de la Corona, podrían verse seriamente afectados. Por eso, en vez de acudir a Scotland Yard, desde palacio se avisa a la Brigada Especial, el departamento que se ocupa de todos los asuntos concernientes a la seguridad nacional. Thomas Pitt y el jefe de la Brigada Especial, Victor Narraway, son convocados con carácter de urgencia. Para ambos está claro que el asesino sigue todavía en palacio y que es alguien del servicio o bien, como pronto sospecha Thomas Pitt, uno de los invitados del príncipe. Tres hombres de negocios, con sus respectivas esposas, están alojados en el ala de invitados, intentando conseguir el apoyo del príncipe de Gales para un proyecto tremendamente ambicioso y enormemente caro, que no goza del respaldo de todo el mundo en el Imperio: la construcción de una vía férrea desde Ciudad del Cabo hasta El Cairo, uniendo las principales colonias británicas en el continente africano. Mientras Víctor Narraway empieza a utilizar sus contactos en el Parlamento y el gran mundo para indagar sobre este proyecto y los hombres que quieren llevarlo a cabo, Thomas Pitt se recluye en palacio para iniciar una investigación que no se presenta nada fácil.
A él le corresponde interrogar, con la mayor discreción pero sin concesiones, a tres hombres que representan los grandes poderes fácticos del país, y ello sin comprometer a la persona del príncipe Eduardo. La única ayuda con la que cuenta es la de Gracie, su criada, que ha sido infiltrada entre el servicio por la Brigada Especial. Unas sábanas ensangrentadas con el anagrama de la reina, tres botellas de oporto llenas de sangre, una caja de libros traída por un misterioso portador a medianoche y un plato de Limoges hecho añicos serán la clave para la resolución de un caso complicado, donde todos ocultan muchas cartas.

death in Palace
disc @ full length African R. R. — plots, intrigues
Prince of Wales / Prostitute / wife deaf — maid Grace helps.
Stigma — to people wrong class / not for women okay for men

The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to the palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa. But, alas, the prince’s gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic (after the wives have retired to bed) turns up among the queen’s monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closet.

This is my first Anne Perry book. By and large, the women in it are better---kinder, wiser---than the men. Although the story is a third-person narrative, the author gives us the inner thoughts of Thomas Pitt, the detective who is now part of Special Branch; Gracie, his servant who goes undercover to work in Buckingham Palace; Elsa Dunkeld, the wife of a man who wants to head up a project to build a Cape-to-Cairo railroad in Africa; and Narraway, Pitt's boss. Gracie uncovers vital clues, but, while she recognizes them as vital clues, her discoveries require too much luck. There are lots of descriptions of clothing, especially gowns. The names are surprisingly strange. Unlike an Agatha Christie mystery, removing the killers and one of the victims from society and world makes life better and simpler for everyone else.

A quote: "He was a good-looking man with an intelligent and sensual face. He dressed well, but without that effortless elegance of a man who, once having understood fashion, can follow it or ignore it as he pleases." (p. 88) ( )