(2000)Another very good Thomas Pitt mystery where he tries to find out who killed a local photographer and dressed the corpse as a woman.

Un cadáver sin identificar, un escalofriante asesinato, un crimen movido por la pasión y el brillante escenario de la Inglaterra victoriana son los ingredientes de este nuevo desafío para el inspector Thomas Pitt.

Un photographe professionnel est retrouvé mort dans une barque, déguisé en femme. Un roman policier qui plonge le lecteur dans les débuts de la photographie, les polémiques sur la censure, la liberté de l’art et de l’expression et fait se côtoyer les préraphaélites et Oscar Wilde. Une plongée dans l’ère victorienne, une intrigue bien menée par l’inspecteur Pitt, mais pas toujours très bien traduite. ( )

This was the first book I ever read by Anne Perry. Eh. Well, it was a lot better written than a lot of mysteries I've read. But it oscillated weirdly between fairly typical murder-mystery with police investigations and clues and all that - and a barely-connected story with lots of musings on the role of women in society, the theatre, and the issues involved in censorship. Then, about halfway through, it basically went off on an extended rant against pornography and how bondage/fetish is sick & woman-hating. Whatever. Tell it to all the women I know in the fetish scene....

So. I was unimpressed. And then while I was reading it (at work) I got informed that the writer is actually one of the girls that movie Heavenly Creatures is about, and when she was a teenager she actually killed someone. It's kinda creepy that now she's a successful murder-mystery writer. ( )

I love Anne Perry's novels, all of them, for the vitality and complexity of her characters and her keen depiction of 19th century England. If only there were more than the great stack I've read. ( )