The Search for Anne Perry

by Joanne Drayton

  The News, also reviewing A Dangerous Mourning, acknowledged the new and chillingly dark tone in Anne’s writing:

  Although the solution to the mystery is logical and satisfactory, it is anything but standard. The far-reaching effects of the crime touch both the guilty and innocent alike, leaving a dark legacy that will change their lives forever. It will also stay with the reader long after the book is finished.44

  Although not so convinced by the ending of Defend and Betray, which was described as ‘a plot device badly overused in current crime fiction’, the reviewer for Publishers Weekly commended the way ‘Perry leads readers gradually through a case involving Carlyon’s traumatized son and vengeful daughter, revealing social and moral nuances in the grand tradition of the Victorian novel’.45

  Anne’s Pitt series was also receiving acclaim and commercial success. Highgate Rise, the first Pitt published in hardcover and softcover by Ballantine, was released in 1991, and the even more successful Belgrave Square in 1992. In Highgate Rise the Publishers Weekly detected an ‘added psychological acuity’ to Anne’s usually ‘well-drawn contrasts of upstairs and downstairs’, but, while this novel is a relatively standard case of domestic arson that ends the life of a doctor’s wife, Belgrave Square is anything but typical. The characters are more desperate and the plot more shadowed by espionage than in any previous Pitt.

  ‘Here is the typescript of [BELGRAVE SQUARE],’ Meg wrote when she sent it to Don in February 1991. ‘I hope you like this as much as I do. It’s a strong book, and shows more confidence than I’ve ever seen in Anne.’46 Leona was delighted when it arrived on her desk. When she responded to Anne in July she said: ‘Here, at last are my queries on the manuscript of BELGRAVE SQUARE. As you will see they are all about small points. It is a terrific novel and not at all in need of any structural work.’47

  Belgrave Square begins immediately after the Jack the Ripper killings. London, England and probably the world will never be the same again. In the wake of the Whitechapel terror, Pitt works to find his own killer.

  William Weems is discovered in his office with half his head blown off by a blunderbuss full of gold coins from his own coffers. He is a usurer and a petty blackmailer, and it is tempting for Pitt to see this as a fitting end to a despicable life. As one insightful character puts it: ‘I think usury, whether local in one man to another, or international in one nation to another, is one of the vilest practices of humanity.’ However, Pitt knows it is not his place to judge Weems, and, besides, he and Drummond have been called in to help Lord Sholto Byam, who has a strange link to the dead Weems.

  Lord Byam informs Drummond and Pitt that Weems was blackmailing him over a personal tragedy that is now 20 years old. While he had been staying in the country home of his best friend, Lord Frederick Anstiss, Byam had a flirtation with Anstiss’s wife Laura that had ended in her throwing herself off the balcony of her bedroom. At the time Lord Anstiss gave the impression that it was an accident, but the generally held belief was that the beautiful Laura had killed herself because Lord Byam refused to take their flirtation further. The latter neglects to explain that Weems has an incriminating letter that could bring down both the Byam and Anstiss dynasties. The reader is kept on tenterhooks until the book’s grisly end.

  The life of the Pitt family is woven through the story. Charlotte keeps leaving her children, now five and seven, in the care of their young maid Gracie to investigate with Emily, whose fashionable husband Jack is now standing for Parliament. And there are touches in Belgrave Square that come directly from Anne’s life. The cream and pink Chinese carpet at Lord Byam’s home is remarkably similar to the one on her floor at Portmahomack; the rhododendrons might have come straight from the grounds of the Ilam homestead where she lived in Christchurch; there are references to Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, which she admires, and to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas Ruddigore, Princess Ida and the Pirates of Penzance, which she and her father adored. But it is Pansy the cat that gets the cream.

  During a discussion about the Victorian fad for wearing decorative stuffed animals in hats and on dresses — ‘Don’t you remember — it was all the rage a couple of years ago’ — young Fanny Hilliard describes what happened when Pansy the mouser saw the stuffed mouse stitched to Aunt Dorabella’s gown when she was singing at a soirée.

  She swept across the space we had cleared for her, swirling her skirts behind her, raising her hands to illustrate the song — and Pansy, the cat, shot out from under the drapes ’round the piano legs and bolted up Dorabella’s skirt after the mouse. Dorabella hit a high note very much higher than she had intended … Pansy took fright and ran down again … with the mouse between her teeth, and a sizable piece of the skirt with it.

  There were further signs of Anne’s rise in popularity. An excited Leona told Meg ‘the good news about the book club auction for BELGRAVE SQUARE ($36,000 to the Book-of-the-Month Club) … That’s good news about the film option on THE FACE OF A STRANGER. I don’t know that a television film will do much for sales here but it is very nice for Anne.’48

  Even before it had gone to print, Belgrave Square was making them money. The response when it was published, in April 1992, was astonishing. With a letter to Anne, Leona sent ‘a wonderful review of BELGRAVE SQUARE in today’s New York Times. They don’t review many mysteries in the daily Times so this is impressive indeed. Congratulations.’49 One comment read: ‘The author has the eyes of a hawk for character and nuance and her claws out for the signs of … criminal injustice.’50

  Critics and readers alike were detecting a change in Anne’s writing, not just for the Monk series, but for the Pitts as well. Certainly the stability of the Ballantine contracts, and their generous terms, contributed to this, as did the pleasure of living in Portmahomack and watching the renovation of the old barn. But there was something more. Behind the new books was a fresh approach. Don and Meg had begun to work with Anne in a more concerted fashion, to tighten the plots, deepen the characters and give them a more political edge. The addition of Don to the team had been something of a turning point, because he was good at plot development. Now, before she began writing a book, Anne’s outlines were rigorously discussed, and sometimes rewritten at the trans-Atlantic summit meetings they began to hold annually in January or whenever else the opportunity presented itself. Don liked the idea of introducing intrigue and espionage, while Meg worked on maintaining accuracy and authenticity and making the evolution of the series characters convincing.

  ‘Thanks for the good news regarding the sale of Belgrave Square to the BOMC [Book-of-the-Month Club],’ Don wrote to Leona at the beginning of 1992. ‘Nicely done! Anne’s career certainly seems to be on a sharp upward curve. The news reminds me that Kim Hovey of your publicity department has been collecting letters from book stores interested in having Anne sign.’51

  Don was hoping that a tour could be organized to coincide with the release of Belgrave Square in April. As Meg told him, the trip was scheduled from 22 April through to 3 May, and included ‘Boston, Minneapolis, and New York, as well as a couple of other cities. Anne says she had a good talk with Kim Hovey, who sounded surprised at the keen reaction she got from the bookshops, but the penny seems to have dropped.’52

  Anne’s spring tour was followed by another whirlwind visit in October with Defend and Betray. She visited 17 cities in 23 days, beginning in Toronto, then flying across the United States to the west coast and back again, taking in places such as Seattle, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Houston, and finishing in New York. ‘Sunday with your friend, Sunday night, Nov 1, flight back home’ finished the itinerary note sent to Anne.53 The trip was exhausting, but a highlight after months of solid writing. Kim Hovey accompanied Anne to the New York venues, and for other legs of the tour Anne was met and taken to appointments.

  One of the important people Anne met between programmed signings was film, television and book agent Ken Sherman. Meg was making progress towards selling the televi
sion rights, not only to the Pitt series, but also to The Face of a Stranger. To improve her chances of success, especially in the United States, she decided to get an agent to represent Anne in Hollywood. Ken faxed Meg and Diana Tyler at the MBA office:

  Just a quick note to let you know it was a treat to meet Anne when she was briefly in LA on her book tour last weekend. We talked a lot and I hope established a good relationship for the future. She’s a wonderfully intense and intelligent lady and one can see after meeting her why her books are so successful.54

  Anne was delighted with the congenial, creative Ken, and at the prospect of her stories being communicated through film.

  Linking in with Ken was just one of a number of strategies Meg was employing to help make this happen. She had just gone through an extended period of sending Anne’s books and manuscripts to studios and production companies to establish interest. ‘Thou With Clean Hands’ and Anne’s two fantasy novels had gone to Ileen Maisel at Paramount. Ileen’s response was positive, but noncommittal. Meg wrote back: ‘Anne is delighted at your liking her work, and is forming some ideas about making her books more filmic. She’d be happy to discuss this with you, either by phone — or, her invitation to stay still stands.’55

  Anne made a concerted effort to become more ‘filmic’ in her writing, but after Paramount considered the manuscripts, nothing more happened. Meg sent Pitt books and The Face of a Stranger to Twentieth Century Fox, Pinewood Studios, and Yorkshire Television, among others. Many of the replies that came back mirrored that of Sarah Horne at Pinewood Studios. ‘I thought it an extraordinarily well crafted novel with fascinating characters and an intriguing story … My concern is that expensive period pieces are very difficult to get off the ground in the current climate.’56

  The film and television endeavour that looked most promising was the project with Lynda La Plante, whose first episode of Prime Suspect was released on British television in 1991 to considerable acclaim. A script for the pilot Pitt episode arrived with Meg at MBA, accompanied by a note from Lynda: ‘Please forward on the script to Anne. I am so nervous. I hope she approves — it is only a 1st draft so any changes she wishes to make can be made.’57 When Anne felt that the script was not close enough in detail or substance to the original books, it was decided that Lynda would work on a second draft with Anne’s input, while she and Hilary Heath continued to look for series backers and renewed their option contract on the books.

  At the beginning of 1992 Anne sent Meg her latest manuscript to read, which Meg then forwarded to Don. ‘Herewith FARRIERS’ LANE by Anne Perry, the latest in the “Pitt” series. I have some thoughts on this, but on the whole I feel it’s extremely good. Anne has developed some fancy plotting since talking to you about it.’58 After the recommended changes were made, the manuscript was sent to Leona, who was planning a visit to London in the first two weeks of March. Anne was travelling down from Scotland to meet her in London, and Leona wanted to know if Meg would like to join them for dinner, adding: ‘I’ve just read FARRIERS’ LANE. It’s terrific. I’ve called Anne and told her how much I liked it.’59

  Farriers’ Lane has a more layered and complex plot than Anne’s previous Pitts. There is the nightmare for Charlotte and Emily of their 53-year-old widowed mother, Caroline, chasing a promising young Jewish actor 17 years her junior; the murder of Judge Samuel Stafford and hanging five years earlier of Aaron Godman, also a Jew; and the theme of anti-Semitism and racism running through the book. The story opens with Charlotte and Thomas at the theatre with Caroline, watching a West End production in which Caroline’s new beau, Joshua Fielding, is playing the lead.

  The drama on stage, however, is nothing compared with the drama in the theatre box nearby. Judge Stafford, who has been staring blindly in front of him, slumps to the floor; his only response to his wife loosening his collar is the ‘spasmodic jerking of his limbs’. He has been poisoned with opium.

  It seems that the judge was about to reopen the case that had ended in the execution of Aaron Godman for crucifying his friend Kingsley Blaine on a stable door in Farriers’ Lane. Godman’s sister, actress Tamar Macaulay, vehemently protested her brother’s innocence and the case was appealed, but without success. The grounds for Godman’s conviction were that Blaine was a married man having an affair with Tamar: Godman was punishing him for cheating on his wife and for fooling Tamar into believing he would marry her. The fact that Godman is a Jew and Blaine was crucified fuels the continuing public condemnation. Has the justice system made a terrible mistake? To what lengths will it go to keep an error hidden?

  Anti-Semitism, the legal system, the history of pharmacology and the sale of opium in England are all scrutinized in the novel, but the most personal writing is contained in a visit to Vespasia and the story of Caroline. Vespasia’s dog is Anne’s Daisy, who, after living with Meg MacDonald across the lane, decided to move in. Anne adored her. She was so clever that when Anne forgot her bath towel Daisy would get it, without instruction. A fictional Daisy sits on Vespasia’s floor when Charlotte visits:

  A close-haired black-and-white dog lay on the floor in a patch of sun. She appeared to be something like a lurcher, a cross between whippet and general collie, with perhaps a touch of spaniel in the face. She was highly intelligent, but lean, built for running, and irregularly marked.

  Vespasia reacquaints herself with an old flame, Thelonius Quade, a much younger man who fell in love with her some 20 years before when she was married. ‘He was one of the few men who was more than her intellectual equal … If only they had met when — but she never indulged in fruitless regret’, and nor did Anne, but this was very much the story of her romantic life with men. Anne had had a relationship in England before she left to live in the United States, several while she was there and one after she returned home. ‘In each case I really hoped and prayed that it would go somewhere — and I’m even more grateful that it didn’t. It was probably romance and hormonal, up to about 40 [years old] … Did I have affairs? Yes, I did. Did I sleep with them? You bet I bloody did. Did it go anywhere? No.’60

  Often the men who most attracted Anne were unavailable because they were married. Nonetheless there were red-hot affairs and infatuations, and one ended soon after she told him about the murder. It was always a quandary whether to tell partners. Her past played on her mind and placed a strain on her relationships, but was there any hope unless she was honest from the beginning? Like Vespasia, she tried not to entertain regrets, but they were there in her lack of physical intimacy and the loneliness she sometimes felt.

  Caroline is exactly Anne’s age and doing what she would have liked to do herself. She is finding a husband and a soul mate long after other people thought it possible. Her children are mortified by the conduct of their wayward mother. Pitt remonstrates with his wife:

  ‘Charlotte, there’s not time for self-indulgence! People don’t stop falling in love because they are fifty — or sixty — or any other age! … Why shouldn’t your mother fall in love? When you are fifty Jemima will think you as old and fixed as the framework of the world, because that is what you are to her — the framework of all she knows and that gives her safety and identity. But you will be the same woman inside as you are now, and just as capable of passions.’

  Anne has experienced this situation from both positions. The child of a broken marriage whose framework of safety and identity seemed to have disintegrated overnight, she understands and communicates Charlotte’s turmoil with conviction. ‘[Caroline] was Charlotte’s mother! The very thought of it made Charlotte feel upset and curiously lonely.’ But Anne also knows what it is to live in isolation, like Caroline, who sits at the dinner table with her horrible mother-in-law. ‘It was now set merely for the two of them, and they were marooned at either end of it, staring down the long oaken expanse at one another.’

  Farriers’ Lane came out in spring, and A Sudden, Fearful Death in the fall of 1993. Both books were well received, especially by Publishers Weekly, which described
A Sudden, Fearful Death as ‘this surpassingly excellent historical and psychologically intricate mystery’ in which Anne made ‘deft use of history to cast additional light on modern-day issues’. The concerns poignantly communicated in this fourth Monk are the problems of being a woman in Victorian society, which also have an uncomfortable contemporary resonance.

  Aspects of women’s sexuality bind the plot of A Sudden, Fearful Death. There is rape and incest, and their tragic consequences — unwanted pregnancies adding to the astronomical infant mortality rates or abortions that maim or kill both mother and foetus. All this is considered in relation to the sad story of Prudence Barrymore, a woman whose deepest wish is to go to medical school and become a doctor — an ambition that proves ‘as astonishing as the pearl in the head of the toad’.61 She has nursed with Florence Nightingale and Hester on the battlefields of the Crimean War and wants to bring about reforms, but all this is cut short when her strangled body tumbles out of a laundry-chute, along with the linen, in the Royal Free Hospital, where she had been working. Monk is called in by his benefactress, Lady Callandra Daviot, who is a member of the hospital’s board of governors. Hester wishes to avenge her friend’s death; Callandra wants to protect married surgeon Dr Kristian Beck, whom she secretly loves and who is a suspect in the case. It is a sad story of frustration and self-loathing brought about by endemic discrimination: ‘She used to be so angry she was a woman. She wished she could have been a man so she could do all these things,’ Prudence’s sister Faith explains to Hester. At times it seems only Hester is capable of imagining something as irrational as a woman doctor. Even the admirable Oliver Rathbone cannot comprehend it.

  ‘But medical school? A woman! Can she really have imagined it was possible?’