Prolific octogenarian Perry promises to continue her Pitt family series and William Monk novels "as long as anyone is still interested in reading them." The Pitt family saga continues here with Daniel Pitt named junior counsel on a fraud case involving Malcolm Vayne, a financial wizard and philanthropist. Vayne supports women's suffrage, which leaves Daniel's wife Miriam fford Croft with conflicted feelings, but it's not long before she learns that he is guilty as charged, and her forensic investigation reveals he may be involved in the murder of a key witness. Sir Thomas Pitt, now Head of Special Branch, steps in, and series fans will enjoy meeting up again with Inspector Ian Frobisher, who is key to finding a kidnapped Miriam in a flooding cave on the northern coast. Perry's courtroom drama starts a bit slowly under the weight of financial details but quickly increases in intensity as the author craftily captures the reader's attention. The richly atmospheric tale brings the summer of 1912 to vivid life, from Titanic headlines to Miriam's bright red Speedster.

Set in 1912, bestseller Perry's strong sixth Daniel Pitt novel (after 2021's Three Debts Paid) finds London barrister Daniel facing major changes in his professional life. The head of chambers, Daniel's father-in-law, has decided to retire, and a newcomer, Gideon Hunter, is brought onboard to add a veteran attorney to the firm. Hunter accepts a high-profile case: the prosecution of wealthy newspaper owner Malcolm Vayne, a philanthropist and vocal supporter of women's suffrage. Insp. Ian Frobisher, a friend of Daniel's, recently shared his suspicions that Vayne was bilking hundreds of people through a pyramid scheme, but added that he lacked conclusive proof. Despite those misgivings, Vayne was arrested and charged, leaving Daniel, who's assisting Hunter, to scramble to find enough evidence for a conviction. The stakes rise when Vayne's financial dealings attract the attention of Daniel's father, Thomas, now the head of Special Branch. The author cleverly makes the most of a plotline not centered on a crime of violence. Four decades after her debut, Perry shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary. (Apr.)

Barrister Daniel Pitt is thrown into the prosecution of a powerful man accused of a swindle that will remind readers of much more recent times than 1912. Already thrown off balance by the retirement of his father-in-law, senior partner Marcus fford Croft; his replacement by Gideon Hunter KC; and the elevation of his own brilliant but untried friend Toby Kitteridge to head of chambers, Daniel is knocked off his feet by Hunter's determination to lead the prosecution of wealthy, socially connected Malcolm Vayne, whose advanced views on women's suffrage have won him admirers even more numerous than the investors whose money his Big Ben Investments has lost. Convinced that Vayne has been running a Ponzi scheme dependent on endless waves of new investors to pay off the old, Hunter presses Daniel to serve as his junior counsel on the case. The trial is a disaster from the first witness, businessman John Sandemann, who abandons his earlier account about Vayne's wrongdoings to sing his praises effusively. Vayne's international liaison Richard Whitnall, a second witness, doesn't answer the summons to testify because he's lying on his kitchen floor with a knife in his belly, and others offer testimony a great deal more muted than Hunter and Daniel had been led to expect. The outcome of the trial will be determined largely by two women: Nadine Parnell, the bookkeeper who does her best to lead the jury through the layers upon layers of Vayne's fraud, and Daniel's wife, pathologist Miriam Pitt, who could dispel the rumors that Whitnall's death was a suicide if she hadn't been kidnapped, driven to Northumberland, and stashed away in a tidal cave. Familiar fare well served in Perry's plush, comfortable prose. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.