"Buckingham Palace Gardens"

The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to the palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa. But, alas, the prince’s gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic (after the wives have retired to bed) turns up among the queen’s monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closet.

With great haste, Thomas Pitt, brilliant mainstay of Special Services, is summoned to resolve the crisis. The Pitts’ cockney maid, Gracie, is also recruited–to pose as a palace servant and listen in on the guests’ conversations, scan their bedrooms, and scrutinize their troubled faces for clues to hidden rivalries and attachments that could have lead to murder. If Pitt and Gracie fail to find out who brutally murdered the young woman–as seems increasingly likely–Pitt’s career will be over, and the scandal may just cause the monarchy to fall.

My Thoughts...

To be fair, this is the first book I've read by this author, Anne Perry. I don't very often read a book out of my comfort zone, but this book was definitely out of my comfort zone. It has been on my TBR pile for two or three years, so decided to read it this week.

I wasn't surprised by much in this mystery. It just surprised me that it took the police so long to figure it out. I didn't enjoy the book at all. I thought it drew on and on for way to long. I know many like the descriptive writing in their novels, but I just enjoy the storyline, and would liked the story so much better if a lot of the filler were deleted from the story. But I am not a writer so what do I know? I am just a reader with an opinion. Like I said this is the first book I've ever read by this author. I will probably never read another one by her. But I hung in there and read the book to the very end. Since I didn't enjoy it I will only be awarding it two  stars.

This book is a part of my personal library, I picked it up one day while meandering around at Barnes and Nobles.