The Hyde Park Headsman - Anne Griffin Perry [0]
worthy of any London
‘yellow sheet.’ ”
—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
“Jolly good … The Hyde Park Headsman is full of suspense, intrigue, politics and psychological insights. It’s also rich with fully developed characters and relationships. Perry combines those elements with a vivid rendering of Victorian manners and morals for men and women of various social classes.”
—Winston-Salem Journal
“Anne Perry’s genius is apparent in depicting the manners and mores of Victorian London…. Perry brings it to vibrant life with absorbing reality that forces us to ponder just how much progress we’ve made in the past century.”
–The News (Southbridge, MA)
“Splendidly plotted … [THE HYDE PARK HEADSMAN] explores the nature of power while adding detail and color to Perry’s ever more elaborate tapestry of late-nineteenth-century London life.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Well done … Perry’s books inevitably have an abundance of history, suspense and psychology…. [THE HYDE PARK HEADSMAN] promises the same plausibility, effective timing, character development and evocative atmosphere readers have come to expect from Anne Perry.”
—Mystery News
By Anne Perry
Published by The Random House Publishing Group:
Featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt:
THE CATER STREET HANGMAN
CALLANDER SQUARE
PARAGON WALK
RESURRECTION ROW
BLUEGATE FIELDS
RUTLAND PLACE
DEATH IN THE DEVIL’S ACRE
CARDINGTON CRESCENT
SILENCE IN HANOVER CLOSE
BETHLEHEM ROAD
HIGHGATE RISE
BELGRAVE SQUARE
FARRIERS’ LANE
THE HYDE PARK HEADSMAN
TRAITORS GATE
PENTECOST ALLEY
ASHWORTH HALL
BRUNSWICK GARDENS
BEDFORD SQUARE
HALF MOON STREET
THE WHITECHAPEL CONSPIRACY
SOUTHAMPTON ROW
SEVEN DIALS
LONG SPOON LANE
BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS
Featuring William Monk:
THE FACE OF A STRANGER
A DANGEROUS MOURNING
DEFEND AND BETRAY
A SUDDEN, FEARFUL DEATH
THE SINS OF THE WOLF
CAIN HIS BROTHER
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE
THE SILENT CRY
A BREACH OF PROMISE
THE TWISTED ROOT
SLAVES OF OBSESSION
FUNERAL IN BLUE
DEATH OF A STRANGER
THE SHIFTING TIDE
DARK ASSASSIN
The World War I Novels:
NO GRAVES AS YET
SHOULDER THE SKY
ANGELS IN THE GLOOM
AT SOME DISPUTED BARRICADE
WE SHALL NOT SLEEP
The Christmas Novels:
A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY
A CHRISTMAS VISITOR
A CHRISTMAS GUEST
A CHRISTMAS SECRET
A CHRISTMAS BEGINNING
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1994 by Anne Perry
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-76774-5
v3.1
To Leona Nevler, with thanks.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
1
“OH GEORGE.” Millicent let out her breath in a sigh of happiness. “Isn’t it beautiful? I’ve never been out in the park at this time of the morning before. The dawn is so romantic, don’t you think? It’s the beginning of everything!”
George said nothing, but tiptoed a little more rapidly over the wet grass.
“Look at the light on the water.” Millicent went on ecstatically. “It’s just like a great silver plate.”
“Funny shape for a plate,” George muttered, regarding the long, narrow snake of the Serpentine with less enthusiasm than she.
“It will be like fairyland out there.” Millicent had no respect for the practical at a time like this. She had crept out through the park to sail on the dawn-lit water alone with George. What place had the literal at such a point? She picked up her skirts to keep them from getting soaked in the dew; this much was merely common sense, which was a totally different thing. No one wanted the wet, heavy fabric flapping around their ankles.
“There’s someone already out,” George