Twenty-One Days - Anne Perry

Written by Anne Perry
Read by Samuel Roukin
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 48 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Daniel Pitt, book 1
Publisher:Recorded Books, Inc.
Release Date:4/10/2018
Duration: 09:24:22

Thomas Pitt’s son Daniel races to save his client from execution, setting him against London’s Special Police Branch.

It’s 1910, and Daniel Pitt is a reluctant lawyer who would prefer to follow in the footsteps of his detective father. When the biographer Russell Graves, who Daniel is helping defend, is sentenced to execution for the murder of his wife, Daniel’s Pitt-family investigative instincts kick in, and he sets out to find the real killer. With only twenty-one days before Graves is to be executed, Daniel learns that Graves is writing a biography of Victor Narraway, the former head of Special Branch and a close friend of the Pitts. And the stories don’t shed a positive light. Is it possible someone is framing Graves to keep him from writing the biography-maybe even someone Daniel knows in Special Branch?

The only answer, it seems, lies in the dead woman’s corpse. And so, with the help of some eccentric new acquaintances who don’t mind bending the rules, Daniel delves into an underground world of dead bodies and double lives, unearthing scores of lies and conspiracies. As he struggles to balance his duty to the law with his duty to his family, the equal forces of justice and loyalty pull this lawyer-turned-detective in more directions than he imagined possible. And amidst it all, his client’s twenty-one days are ticking away.

Critics were not very impressed by this first book of a new series—
Daniel’s head of chambers, doesn’t intend to let that verdict stand. He demands that Kitteridge and Daniel get it reversed, Kitteridge by looking for new legal arguments, Daniel by finding new evidence, before Graves hangs in three weeks. Hardly has Perry begun to count down the days to the execution when Daniel comes across a stunning new development: The subject of Graves’ latest expose was none other than the late Victor Narraway, an old friend of Sir Thomas Pitt, who’s liberally smeared along with his mentor and predecessor. Now that Daniel’s reasons for wanting to see Graves executed are at least as powerful as his reasons for seeking his acquittal, the stage seems set for an epic battle of conflicting passions and loyalties. Alas, the windup of the case is a lot less compelling than its setup.Even so, Perry, who seems just as comfortable in 1910 as she ever did back in Victoria’s day, provides a great first half and raises a number of pointed ethical questions before she rescues her hero from having to resolve them.

Note—This is a corrected re-up. Chapter One was corrupted but no one bothered to report it in the forum six weeks ago.