Anne Perry Popular Books
Anne Perry Biography & Facts
Anne Perry (born Juliet Marion Hulme; 28 October 1938 – 10 April 2023) was a British writer best known as the author of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and William Monk series of historical detective fiction. In 1994, it became public knowledge that Perry had been convicted for murder as a teenager while living in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1954, at the age of fifteen, she and her 16-year-old friend Pauline Parker murdered Parker's mother, Honorah Rieper. After serving a five-year sentence for the murder, she changed her name and returned to the United Kingdom. She was identified by journalists following the release of the movie Heavenly Creatures, directed by Peter Jackson, in which Kate Winslet portrays Hulme (Perry). Early life Born in London, the daughter of physicist Henry Rainsford Hulme, Perry was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a child and sent to the Caribbean, South Africa, and New Zealand in hopes that a warmer climate would improve her health. She rejoined her family after her father took a position as rector of Canterbury University College in New Zealand. She attended Christchurch Girls' High School, located in what became the Cranmer Centre. A 1948 Auckland Star photograph of Juliet arriving in New Zealand was discovered by Auckland Libraries staff in 2012 and written about in the Heritage et AL blog. Murder and trial In June 1954, at the age of 15, Hulme and her best friend Pauline Parker murdered Parker's mother, Honorah Rieper. Hulme's parents were in the process of separating and she was supposed to go to South Africa to stay with a relative. The two teenage friends, who had created a complicated fantasy life together populated with celebrities such as Mario Lanza and James Mason, did not want to be separated. On 22 June 1954, the girls and Rieper went for a walk in Victoria Park in the Port Hills of Christchurch. On an isolated path, Hulme dropped an ornamental stone so that Rieper would lean over to retrieve it. Parker had planned to hit her mother with half a brick wrapped in a stocking. The girls presumed that one blow would kill her but it took more than 20. Parker and Hulme stood trial in Christchurch in 1954 and were found guilty on 28 August. As they were too young to be considered for the death penalty under New Zealand law at the time, they were convicted and sentenced to be "detained at Her Majesty's pleasure". They were released separately five years later. At the time of Hulme's death in 2023, Parker and Hulme were not believed to have had any contact since the trial. The events formed the basis for the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, in which Melanie Lynskey portrayed a teenage Pauline Parker and Kate Winslet the teenaged Juliet Hulme. At the time of the film's release, it was not generally known that mystery author Anne Perry was Juliet Hulme; her identity was made public after journalists tracked her down some months after the film's release. Although some presumed Hulme and Parker's relationship to be sexual, Perry stated in 2006 that, while the relationship was obsessive, the two "were never lesbians". Later life After being released from prison in November 1959, Hulme returned to England and became a flight attendant. For a period she lived in the United States, where she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1968. She later settled in the Scottish village of Portmahomack, where she lived with her mother. Her father had a distinguished scientific career, heading the British hydrogen bomb programme. Hulme took the name Anne Perry, using her stepfather's surname. Her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was published under this name in 1979. Her works generally fall into one of several categories of genre fiction, including historical murder mysteries and detective fiction. Many feature recurring characters, most importantly Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, who appeared in her first novel, and amnesiac private investigator William Monk, who first appeared in her 1990 novel The Face of a Stranger. After Perry's identity as Hulme was revealed in 1994, she said: It seemed so unfair. Everything I had worked to achieve as a decent member of society was threatened. And once again my life was being interpreted by someone else. It had happened in court when, as a minor, I wasn't allowed to speak and I heard all these lies being told. And now there was a film, but nobody had bothered to talk to me. I knew nothing about it until the day before release. All I could think of was that my life would fall apart and that it might kill my mother. She continued writing and said that she was surprised that her friends stuck by her despite the revelation of her identity and the ensuing media attention. In 1998 she was featured by The Times in its list of 100 "masters of crime". Her story "Heroes", which first appeared in the 1999 anthology Murder and Obsession, edited by Otto Penzler, won the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. In 2005, Perry appeared on the Trisha show to discuss her murder conviction on a special themed show. A 2009 documentary film, Anne Perry Interiors, gave a snapshot of her life and the people close to her. In 2009 she received a lifetime achievement award at the Agatha Awards. In 2013 and 2020 she was a guest of honour at the Bouchercon mystery fiction convention. As of 2014, Perry had published 29 novels in the Pitt series, 20 novels in the Monk series, ten other novels for adults, three young adult novels and 11 mystery novellas with Christmas themes. Publishers Weekly noted that her sales at that time exceeded 10 million copies and that her works regularly appeared on The New York Times bestseller list. In 2017, Perry left Scotland and moved to Los Angeles in order to more effectively promote films based on her novels. She had a heart attack in December 2022, and died at a hospital in Los Angeles on 10 April 2023, aged 84. Her novel The Fourth Enemy was published the day after her death. Bibliography Each series is listed in internal chronological order, according to the author's website. Perry's two main series each feature a male and a female protagonist. Thomas Pitt is matched with his wife Charlotte, while William Monk is matched with Hester Latterly, a Crimean War nurse. The Monk mysteries are set earlier in the Victorian era (1850s–1860s) than the Pitt books (1880s–1890s). Featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Featuring Daniel Pitt Twenty-One Days (2018) Triple Jeopardy (2019) One Fatal Flaw (2020) Death with a Double Edge (2021) Three Debts Paid (2022) The Fourth Enemy (2023) Featuring Hester Latterly and William Monk Featuring Elena Standish Death in Focus (2019) A Question of Betrayal (2020) A Darker Reality (2021) A Truth To Lie For (2022) The Traitor Among Us (2023) The World War I series No Graves As Yet (2003) Shoulder the Sky (2004) Angels in the Gloom (2005) At Some Disputed Barricade (2006) We Shall Not Sleep (2007) The Christmas stories The Christmas Collections An Anne Pe.... Discover the Anne Perry popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Anne Perry books.
Best Seller Anne Perry Books of 2024
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Corridors of the Night
Anne PerryAnne Perry, that incomparable novelist of life in Victorian England, has once again surpassed herself, with this twentyfirst installment of her New York Times bestselling William M...
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Death in Focus
Anne PerryIn the start of an allnew mystery series set in pre–World War II Europe, an intrepid young photographer carries her dead lover’s final, worldshattering message into the heart of Be...
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Midnight at Marble Arch
Anne PerryNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY RT BOOK REVIEWSIn this superbly accomplished Charlotte and Thomas Pitt adventure, Anne Perry takes us beneath ...
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Defend and Betray
Anne PerryAfter a brilliant military career, esteemed General Thaddeus Carlyon finally meets his death, not in the frenzy of battle but at an elegant London dinner party. His demise appears ...
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Cain His Brother
Anne Perry"A TRIUMPH . . . A model of the richness and subtleties of relationships, characters, and story construction."Chicago SunTimesIn his family life, Angus Stonefield had been gentle a...
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The Sins of the Wolf
Anne PerryNurse Hester Latterly finds herself well suited for the task: accompany Mrs. Mary Farraline, an elderly Scottish lady in delicate health, on a short train trip to London. Yet Heste...
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Brunswick Gardens
Anne PerryIn London’s affluent Brunswick Gardens, the battle over Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theory of evolution intensifies as the respected Reverend Parmenter is boldly challenged by h...
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Long Spoon Lane
Anne Perry“[Anne] Perry has once again delivered the tasty concoction her readers have come to expect . . . and presents us with moral and political puzzles that are all too close to our own...
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Death on Blackheath
Anne PerryNATIONAL BESTSELLERAnne Perry’s superb New York Times bestselling novels set in the glorious reign of Victoria are loved by readers far and wide. Now, with this new Charlotte and T...
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An Echo of Murder
Anne PerryIn this riveting new William Monk novel, Anne Perry delves into the diverse population of Victorian London, whose disparate communities force Monk to rethink his investigative tech...
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Execution Dock
Anne PerryOn the bustling docks along the River Thames, Great Britain’s merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucra...
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The Hyde Park Headsman
Anne PerryNot since the bloody deeds of Jack the Ripper have Londoners felt such terror as that aroused by the gruesome beheadings in Hyde Park. And if newly promoted Police Superintendent T...
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The Search for Anne Perry
Joanne DraytonA New York Times Best Seller!In 1994, director Peter Jackson released the movie Heavenly Creatures, based on a famous 1950s matricide committed in New Zealand by two teenage girls ...
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One Fatal Flaw
Anne PerryTwo fiery deaths have young lawyer Daniel Pitt and his scientist friend Miriam fford Croft racing to solve a forensic crisis in this explosive new novel from New York Times bestsel...
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The Silent Cry
Anne PerryDeep in London’s dangerous slums, Victorians transact their most secret and shameful business. For a price, a man can procure whatever he wants. But for one such man, the price he ...
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Ashworth Hall
Anne PerryWhen a group of powerful Irish Protestants and Catholics gather at a country house to discuss Irish home rule, contention is to be expected. But when the meeting’s moderator, gover...
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The Shifting Tide
Anne PerryWilliam Monk knows London’s streets like the back of his hand. But the river Thames and its teeming dockswhere wharf rats and night plunderers ply their tradesis unknown territory....
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The Matter of the Secret Bride
Darcie WildeSet in Regency London, this charming Jane Austeninspired mystery series features Rosalind Thorne, a resourceful young woman with a talent for helping ladies of the ton with their m...
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A Dangerous Mourning
Anne PerryInspector William Monk has his hands full when an aristocrat's daugher is stabbed to death in her own bed. He is instructed to proceed without delay, but finds his efforts hamstrun...
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Slaves of Obsession
Anne PerryThe year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the ...
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Pentecost Alley
Anne PerryThe murder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley should occasion no stir in Victoria’s great metropolis, but under the victim’s body, the poli...
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Buckingham Palace Gardens
Anne PerryThe Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to Buckingham Palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a sixthousandmile railroad that would...
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No Graves As Yet
Anne PerryThrough Anne Perry’s magnificent Victorian novels, millions of readers have enjoyed the pleasures and intrigue of a bygone age. Now, with the debut of an extraordinary new seri...
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Death at the Manor
Katharine SchellmanThe tortured spirits of the dead haunt a Regencyera English manorbut the true danger lies in the land of the living in the third installment in the Lily Adler mysteries, perfect fo...
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Dorchester Terrace
Anne Perry“[A] magic kingdom of Victorian murder and intrigue.”The New York Times Book Review Thomas Pitt is now the powerful head of Britain’s Special Branch, and some people fear t...
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The Twisted Root
Anne Perry“A novel whose suspense remains high until the final pages . . . Anne Perry is [a] master of crime fiction who rarely fails to deliver a strong story and a colorful cast of charact...
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Acceptable Loss
Anne PerryAnne Perry’s seventeenth William Monk novel, now in paperback, is a mesmerizing masterpiece of innocence and evil on London’s docks, a welcome addition to this successful and be...
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Twenty-one Days
Anne PerryIn the first book of an allnew series, a young lawyer races to save his client from execution, putting him at odds with his own father: Thomas Pitt, head of London’s Special Police...
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A Truth to Lie For
Anne PerryA lethal new weapon endangers all of Europeunless Elena Standish can rescue an ingenious scientist from Hitler’s clutchesin this actionpacked suspense novel by bestselling author A...
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Treason at Lisson Grove
Anne PerryNATIONAL BESTSELLERBONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Anne Perry's Dorchester Terrace. The man who lies bleeding to death in a London brickyard is no ordinary drif...
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An Anne Perry Christmas
Anne PerryFor the first time in one cozy volume: Anne Perry’s first two Christmas novels–yuletide offerings full of holiday magic . . . and murder A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY “One of the best book...
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Funeral in Blue
Anne PerryBONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Anne Perry's Treason at Lisson Grove and Execution Dock.Two beautiful women have been found strangled in the studio of a wellknown London...
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Revenge in a Cold River
Anne PerryMaster of mystery and historical intrigue Anne Perry once again transports readers to the banks of the Thames in Victorian London for her thrilling new William Monk novel. In Reven...
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The Secret of the Lost Pearls
Darcie WildeThis captivating Regencyera mystery inspired by the novels of Jane Austen is perfect for fans of Andrea Penrose, Lauren Willig, and Deanna Raybourn, as readers venture beyond the g...
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A New York Christmas
Anne PerryAnne Perry’s new Christmas novel is an irresistible tale of love, betrayal, greed, murder, and selfless devotion. For the first time, Perry’s annual yuletide offering is set in New...
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Belgrave Square
Anne PerryWhen an obscure moneylender named William Weems is murdered in the humble Clerkenwell district, there are no mournersand there is more than a little discreet rejoicing among those ...
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Death with a Double Edge
Anne PerryDaniel Pitt’s investigation into his colleague’s murder leads him through London’s teeming underbelly to the suspicious dealings of one of England’s most influential shipbuilding m...
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A Christmas Garland
Anne Perry“An annual treat,” declared The Wall Street Journal of Anne Perry’s Victorianera holiday mysteries. Now she continues this magnificent tradition with A Christmas Garland, a yuletid...
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A Christmas Escape
Anne PerryFor countless readers, Christmastime means a delicious new holiday mystery from New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry. A Christmas Escape, her thirteenth noel to the season,...
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A Sudden, Fearful Death
Anne PerryIn a London hospital, Prudence Barrymore, a talented nurse who had once been one of Florence Nightingale’s angels of mercy in the Crimean War, meets sudden death by strangulation. ...
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Death of a Stranger
Anne PerryFew authors have written more mesmerizingly about Victorian London than Anne Perry. Readers enter her world with exquisite anticipation, and experience a rich variety of characters...
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Blind Justice
Anne PerryNATIONAL BESTSELLERFor a generation, Anne Perry’s New York Times bestselling novels have invited readers to explore the brilliantly seductive heart of Victorian London, where great...
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Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century
Peter GrahamOn June 22, 1954, teenage friends Juliet Hulmebetter known as bestselling mystery writer Anne Perryand Pauline Parker went for a walk in a New Zealand park with Pauline’s mother, H...
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A Sunless Sea
Anne PerryAnne Perry’s spellbinding Victorian mysteries, especially those featuring William Monk, have enthralled readers for a generation. The Plain Dealer calls Monk “a marvelously dark, b...