Half Moon Street

When abridgers make their cuts, one would hope that they'd remove extraneous narrative and retain the action of the plot, especially in detective fiction. Unfortunately, the editors of HALF MOON STREET elected to excise story line in order to preserve Perry's social diatribes. The story suffers until the end, when Perry delivers a completely satisfying, tragically Shakespearean ending. What really carries this novel of pornography, shame, and murder in Victorian England is David McCallum's beautiful reading of the story as Superintendent Thomas Pitt investigates a murder on the fringes of London's theater community. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

April 3, 2000
Prolific mystery author Perry (Bedford Square) explores the changing mores and social constraints of turn-of-the-century Victorian England in her latest novel featuring London police superintendent Thomas Pitt. Testament to his extensive stage (Amadeus), television and film credits, reader McCallum goes beyond mere narration to bare the depths of emotion represented by each of Perry's well-developed characters. Thus, he brings to life Pitt's diligent investigation into the murder of a young local photographer whose grotesquely posed corpse has been found floating in an abandoned boat on the Thames. With an array of dialects and perfectly timed inflections, McCallum leads the listener into the world of theater, underground pornography and the blossoming struggle for women's rightsDall areas with which Pitt comes in contactDand captures the ambience of an emerging bohemian society (represented by the beautiful and thought-provoking stage actress, Cecily Antrim) as well as the staid sensibilities of the older generation. Based on the Ballantine hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 6).