Anne Perry always adds vivid descriptions of the social mores of the times in her mysteries. This book kept me guessing the whole time.

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This mystery set in 1840's London, is another highly readable inspector Thomas Pitt and his well-born wife, Charlotte myetery. It is one of Perry's scathing portraits of Victorian society balanced with a mystery revolving human desires, shameful secrets and the Victorian hyprocrisy that allowed for secret double lives, several of which could only be maintained by blackmail. It is bad enough that the recently deceased Lord Fitzroy-Hammond has been removed from his grave, but when it happens a second time and then other buried corpses start popping up, the normally unflappable Pitt is puzzled indeed. Is the perpetrator trying to hide a murder or call attention to one? The answer lies in a convoluted but perfectly logical merging of art, blackmail, politics, pornography, and prostitution. Doggedly following the evidence, inspector Pitt solves the murders, in the process of which we learn both the dark and compassionate side of Victorian society.

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I was disappointed in this book. I felt like I was reading a textbook about grave desecration, resurrection-ism, and the bodies involved. The mystery seemed to be secondary. Both parts were tied together close to the end, but it seemed contrived to make it so. I prefer the mystery to be prominent thread. If I need detail, do not write me a textbook. A quick overview will do for me. I like the characters. However, I don't think Charlotte and Thomas have found a good balance in their personal lives or in Charlotte's participation in solving the mystery.

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