The Hyde Park Headsman

A series of beheadings in Hyde Park terrifies Victorian London, and newly promoted Superintendent Thomas Pitt finds the case threatening his career as much as the public's safety. With Charlotte Pitt conducting her own social investigation, they navigate a world of privilege and concealment where the killer's identity, when it finally emerges, carries implications far beyond a simple criminal case. Anne Perry sets the novel against the specific anxieties of the 1890s, where Jack the Ripper's memory was fresh and social order felt suddenly fragile.

Jenny Sterlin narrates the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series with the social precision that Perry's Victorian mysteries require. Her performance distinguishes the novel's many class registers clearly, giving each setting, from police headquarters to aristocratic drawing rooms, its distinct atmosphere. Sterlin understands that Perry's mysteries work through accumulation of social detail as much as through plot mechanics, and her pacing reflects that understanding.