Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Midnight at Marble Arch
    Midnight at Marble Arch
    Midnight at Marble Arch
    Audiobook12 hours

    Midnight at Marble Arch

    Written by Anne Perry

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this superbly accomplished new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt adventure, Anne Perry takes us beneath the glittering surface of wealthy Victorian society into a nightmare world of fear and intimidation, where women are too often blamed for the violent attacks against them, and powerful men take what they want, leaving others to pay the price. The horrifying rape and apparent suicide of Catherine Quixwood, wife of a wealthy merchant banker, falls outside the new jurisdiction of Special Branch head Thomas Pitt, but so pervasively offensive are the rumors about the victim that Pitt quietly takes a hand in the investigation. Yet even with the help of his ingenious wife, Charlotte, and his former superior, Victor Narraway, Pitt is stumped. Why did high-minded, cultured Catherine choose not to accompany her husband to a grand party on the night of her demise? Why did she dismiss all her servants for the evening and leave the front door unlocked? What had been her relationship with the young man seen frequently by her side at concerts and art exhibits? And what can be done to avenge another terrible crime: the assault on Angeles Castelbranco, beloved teenage daughter of the Portuguese .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 9, 2013
    ISBN9781470340261
    Midnight at Marble Arch
    Author

    Anne Perry

    With twenty million books in print, ANNE PERRY's was selected by The Times as one of the twentieth century's '100 Masters of Crime', for more information about Anne and her books, visit: www.anneperry.co.uk

    More audiobooks from Anne Perry

    Related to Midnight at Marble Arch

    Titles in the series (26)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Freedom

      Aug 6, 2020

      Freedom
      7 min read

    • Article

      Suspicious Minds

      Apr 7, 2022

      Suspicious Minds
      5 min read

    • Article

      Pickpocket

      Jun 1, 2020

      Pickpocket
      7 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      A Little About Why

      Jun 1, 2023

      A Little About Why
      15 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Helen

      Jun 5, 2023

      She was a friend of my family—the Carlins, as I have chosen to call them. She and my father met in the fifties through the editor of the architecture magazine where she began her career. My father had taken her out a few times. They were never lovers

      30 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play Dead

      Mar 3, 2020

      There was a man, let’s call him Henry VIII. There was his wife, let’s call her Anne B. Let’s give them a castle and make it nice. Let’s give her many boy babies but make them dead. Let’s give him a fussy way of being. Let’s make her smart and sneaky,

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt: 'The Last Thing You Surrender'

      Feb 10, 2019

      In this abridged excerpt from "The Last Thing You Surrender" by columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., elements of the all-black 761st Tank Battalion make a grisly discovery and Pvt. Luther Hayes, whose parents were murdered before his eyes by a white mob whe

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Man In The Photograph

      Aug 24, 2021

      The Man In The Photograph
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Simple Heart (1997)

      Mar 1, 2022

      A Simple Heart (1997)
      3 min read

    • Article

      You Have to Suffer

      Sep 23, 2020

      You Have to Suffer
      19 min read

    • Article

      Remembering Your Roots

      Aug 2, 2022

      Remembering Your Roots
      6 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jan 20, 2020

      Theresa’s former husband Theo has been little but a shadow in her life: he’s spent the past two decades in an institution. Now that he’s dead, she finds herself unsure how to mourn for a man she’s tried so hard to put behind her. But going through a

      4 min read

    • Article

      We All Have Our Stories

      Mar 1, 2021

      We All Have Our Stories
      14 min read

    • Article

      A Book for the Moment: On Helen Weinzweig’s ‘Basic Black with Pearls’

      Jun 1, 2018

      This post was produced in partnership with Bloom, a literary site that features authors whose first books were published when they were 40 or older. 1. In our current moment, a chorus of “nasty women” has flooded social media with grievances. Unfortu

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Best Conversation Piece

      Jun 29, 2022

      In September 1935, that most perceptive observer of the British national character Graham Laidler, better known as Pont, published a cartoon titled Absence of the gift of conversation. It showed 17 people in evening dress sitting down at dinner, over

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Conversation

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Art Of Conversation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hotel ROMEO

      Oct 13, 2021

      Hotel ROMEO
      8 min read

    • Article

      When Lizzie met Maggie

      Dec 13, 2023

      The Grim Reaper has been having a high old time of late. I've barely had a moment to keep up with my diary, I have been so busy writing letters of condolence, attending funerals and giving addresses at memorial services. I was especially saddened by

      3 min read

    • Article

      A tender THREAD

      Dec 29, 2021

      A tender THREAD
      9 min read

    • Article

      A tender THREAD

      Jan 5, 2022

      A tender THREAD
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Midnight at Marble Arch

    4/5

    102 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I am sure her earlier books were slightly better. This was a bit much. Although the story of rape at that time was interesting.
    • 4/5
      Thomas Pitt is now the Commander of Special Branch, part of Britain's intelligence forces. His friend and former boss, Victor Narraway, is involuntarily retired, and not sure what to do with himself, now that for the first time in his adult life he has no duties and no responsibilities.

      As Commander Pitt of Special Branch, Thomas and Charlotte are now attending routinely the kinds of social events that Charlotte grew up with. At one of those events, Charlotte witnesses the Portuguese Ambassador's daughter, Angeles Castelbranco, just sixteen years old, fleeing in terror from the taunting but not obviously threatening behavior of Neville Forbush, the son of a wealthy and well-connected man. In her terror, Angeles stumbles and falls against, and out, a window, to her death.

      Victor Narraway, also making the social rounds in his unwanted retirement, happens to be chatting with an acquaintance, a merchant banker named Quixwood, when a police officer arrives with shocking and tragic news. Catherine Quixwood, his wife, has apparently been attacked and killed while home alone for the evening, after letting the servants retire for the night.

      Narraway agrees to assist in the investigation of Catherine's death, while Pitt responds to the desperate plea of the Portuguese ambassador, who reports that Neville had raped Angeles, explaining her fear of him.

      As they each pursue their separate investigations, and share information, the two cases prove to be linked--to each other, and to the impending trial of Dr. Jameson, who nearly started a war with the Boers by an ill-conceived raid into their territory in South Africa.

      This is a very solid story. Perry has gotten through the awkward period when she didn't quite know what to do with Thomas, and solved the problem of promoting him to a level where Charlotte's social connections are normal and accessible again. In this book she makes them, and their friend Narraway, face some terrifying realities of life for women in late Victorian England. The poignancy of this is increased by the fact that Jemima Pitt is now fourteen, starting to mature physically and socially, still a child but starting to practice some of the social skills, and feel the unsettling emotions, of a teenager not quite old enough to emerge into society. Perry does an excellent job portraying the conflicted feelings, fears, and anger of Thomas, Charlotte, their daughter, and Narraway.

      Recommended.

      I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      As always well written, fast paced with very capable and likeable protagonists. Some really evil upper class bad guys conspire to carry out a vicious crime to cover up typical, for the period, financial shenanigans that could cause the aristocracy much angst. Aunt Vespasia and Victor Narrawa step to the fore as featured players in another excellent Victorian mystery.
    • 4/5
      I was eagerly awaiting more of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, but this one was not as involving as the others because the attempt to deal with rape in this era seemed awkward. The series has dealt so well with the tough issues of the day, such as prostitution, poverty, international espionage, that I confess I was a little disappointed, but still so glad to see Thomas and Charlotte again that of course I rushed out to buy the next one...
    • 5/5
      Anne Perry has written another Charlotte and Thomas Pitt winning novel. Finally Thomas takes charge as the Commander of the Special Branch. In this story Thomas and Victor Narraway ,the former Commander investigate two different rapes of girls and high society women. Vespasia and Charlotte discuss the crimes in a way that would be done today.Can't wait to read the next one. Thanks Net Galley and Ballantine books.
    • 4/5
      The story takes place in London at the beginning of last century.At a party given at the Spanish embassy, a confrontation arises resulting in a young woman falling to her death.Also at the party was a man whose wife was raped and possibly murdered. Thomas and Charlotte Pitt investigate along with Victor Narraway, Thomas's former boss at Special Branch. He is now a member of the House of Lords. The story is cleverly written. Pitt must prove there is a risk to England since he is in Special Branch and since the woman who fell was the daughter of the Portuguese ambassador, he is able to do so. Also there is a connection to the trial of Leander Starr Jameson who led a raid in South Africa.The end result is a well plotted complex mystery with historical and other memorable characters. The conclusion is appropriate and intelligently written.Anne Perry is a master of this genre. This is the 28th book in the series.I enjoy her writing which kept my attention throughout the book.
    • 3/5
      Charlotte and Thomas are attending a society function where she witnesses the taunting of Portuguese Ambassador’s daughter. The girl is only two years older than her own daughter Jemima and wishes she had intervened. Yet again at another function, it happens again and the girl fleas and runs into a glass door and her death. Thomas and Charlotte are joined by Lady Vespasia and Victor Narroway as they talk to the wealthy, the powerful, the neighbors, and the help of London’s society to find out who has been brutally raping three woman and possibly more.
    • 3/5
      I like Anne Perry's Charlotte & Thomas Pitt mystery series a lot, even though her plots often tend to use the deux ex machina literary device a little too often. And this is the case of Midnight at Marble Arch when the couple, with the assistance of Victor Narroway (who seems to be perpetually at loose ends) and the intrepid Lady Vespasia, try and solve the mystery of multiple rapes of various society women.Pitt seems to be finding his feet as the head of Special Branch, and Charlotte seems to be enjoying her new-found social status, although she sill never be a society matron of the conventional sort.A good read for a hot summer month.
    • 4/5
      The question for this book is whether the discussions about rape are anachronistic. Unfortunately, I don't think so. Rape is an act of power, not passion and it hasn't changed. Just look at the discussion about sexual assault in the military that is taking place. That said, this is an excellent addition to the series with an interesting puzzle to be solved. I like the growth of the relationship between Charlotte and Thomas and their children.
    • 4/5
      An upper class woman is discovered brutally raped, dead by apparent suicide. The rape of 3 young women, one murdered and woman an apparent suicide, appear to be entirely separate incidents, suggesting that there at least 2 very violent rapists on the loose in Victorian England.Yet rape is never discussed in polite society, though it is clearly believed that the young women must have done something to cause it. Because no case will ever be made public, in hopes of protecting the victims, the rapist will carry on.
    • 5/5
      This is the 26!! book in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, and this book shows that Ms. Perry has retained all of her writing skills (in fact they appear to increase each time I read another book). I have read each and every book in this series and her equally as good William Monk series and after over 50 books in total, I still rank Ms. Perry as my absolute favourite author! This book is extremely well-written. It is exciting from the first page to the very end. I love the characters in these books, and I feel that I have gotten to know them all very much after so many years. I love the setting-Victorian England, and I love the messages that Ms. Perry sends with each book as to what the culture, social and justice systems were like in those days. And I love Thomas Pitt! He's a wonderful character-a family man who loves his wife and family. Pitt's background (son of a gamekeeper) aids him in his career as the head of Britain's Special Branch. His sense of right and wrong and his fairness learned as a servant in a great house also aid him in his decision-making. He has intelligence and compassion and these have stood him in good stead as he carries out the duties of his new prestigious position. This particular book is a very strong entry in this long-running series. Ms. Perry is very clearly at the top of her game because each new book is just as wonderful and exciting as the last one. In this book, Pitt and his old boss Victor Narraway are each pursuing a violent rapist, and of course this means uncovering some long-buried secrets. They each are concerned with what appears to be different instances, but as they continue to look, they discover there are things that may connect the two apparently unrelated cases. The action continues throughout the entire book until the final pages. I couldn't put the book down, but that is the way it always is for me when reading an Anne Perry novel.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable addition to the series. I enjoyed especially Charlotte and Thomas's relationship with their children, although it was perhaps unrealistically modern. There was one point where a character said "okay" which pulled me out of the story; it didn't seem to fit in. Part of the middle seemed to drag a bit, and the characters were repeating themselves about how they couldn't find proof of a crime. But the end picked up nicely. Overall, a nice visit with the Pitts and company.
    • 4/5
      In reading Midnight at Marble Arch as a standalone; as I have not read any of the others, I enjoyed it very much. I had no trouble connecting with the characters and found the setting of the historic time simply delicious. The historical aspect was in keeping with the era and richly painted to make me feel I was there within the pages. The mystery was splendid and specific to the major social topic of rape. I did feel there was a bit too much of a modern or contemporary feel and actions of the characters. At times it was a hush-hush type of handling of it and then times where the word was spoken out loud by even the younger characters. This seemed a bit off to me. I realize she was trying to portray and bring the issue out and that it existed back in those times, however the voice was not consistent throughout. That being said, the book brought out love, romance, comfortable marriages, social climbing and trying to stay in the status some had acquired, along with that which was not acceptable but existed.The voice and the book is defiantly a Victorian elegance. The characters invited you in and kept you intrigued throughout. The servants were brought to life with their own thoughts, emotions and feelings and were acknowledge, not simply just in the background. It seems the daughter had a large voice in this book and maybe something that had not been in her other books. I read with the feeling that major changes are in store for Jemima. She was mentioned as growing older and maturing throughout the book and it seems as if maybe her life soon will be a major focus as well.I enjoyed this book immensely; the voice was one I grew very comfortable with. It was just a small bit under a perfect rating. I did receive this book via goodreads and thoroughly enjoyed reading a voice I had not in the past.