The characters were very interesting. There were twists and turns to capture your interest. I thought the ending was satisfying.

Anne Perry is the best-selling author of two historical mystery/thriller series; Twenty–one Days is the first in her new Daniel Pitt series. Fans of Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt will welcome this new series, since Daniel is their son, now grown, who is a lawyer. Daniel is new at a large legal firm, and because of circumstances beyond his control, finds himself helping to defend a very unsavory man in a murder case that seems unwinnable. Daniel and the senior lawyer he is assisting both think the man is guilty. But when Daniel uncovers some evidence that may point to unethical behavior in London’s Special Branch where his father is head, he knows that he must investigate to exonerate him. He also needs his father’s advice. Daniel has only twenty-one days to solve the case, and in this time period, it’s not easy to find evidence – there are no modern techniques or DNA to help.

As is her style, Perry tells the story with dozens of twists and turns. The characters are well-developed, and the main characters, especially Daniel, are likeable. Readers will want him to prove himself a good lawyer even though this case seems impossible. There is also the problem that he has had virtually no experience.

Perry is the queen of Victorian mystery novels; she has done enough research and is such a good storyteller, that readers will feel that they are living in England during the time period. There is building suspense – sans graphic violence – throughout.

Anyone who likes historical novels with surprise endings will want to start reading this first book in an excellent series. Although not necessary, those same readers will also want to read the earlier Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. Twenty–one Days is an excellent novel and is hard to put down.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I LOVE this book and this Series! Although I have not read any previous books by Anne Perry.....but I will fix that.

This series follows a young lawyer and a budding forensic scientist in a turn of the century (1900's) crime/mystery book which chronicles two or more legal cases. The book is a compelling read and I read it voraciously. It is so closely puts the reader into the situation in which a young lawyer is trying to save a defendent from being hanged. I read this book quickly as it grabbed my attention from the beginning and did not let me go. It details the beginnings of forensic science with the introduction of finger prints and the analysis of physical evidence in the prosecution of law.

I loved the characters and the great ambiance in the writing. There was one kid of obvious plot twist, but other surprises and twists. I look forward to reading additional books in this series and to going back and reading predecessor series from this author.

I great, compelilng read that is richly written. It wil not disappoint. (less)

As a long time admirer of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, I was very excited to learn of Perry’s new series featuring their son, Daniel as a young barrister. Terrific storytelling and very suspenseful! This reader figured out one aspect of the murder, but there were several surprise twists that kept me engaged and reading! Interesting, believable characters and an overall satisfying read! Even if you’re not familiar with the other series, this one will not disappoint!

Anne Perry is my favorite historical mystery writer, because she writes with a lot of detail, creates interesting characters, and her books raise difficult social and legal issues of their time. On the flip side, she tends to be a bit repetitive and can be long-winded, but I’ll forgive that in a writer if the stories are interesting.

Perry has been writing the same two series for a very long time, so I was excited to receive an ARC of the first book in a new series. Twenty-One Days is about Daniel Pitt, the son of long-standing characters Charlotte and Thomas Pitt — so it’s a spinoff more than a new series. I’m actually more a fan of her William Monk series, just because the characters are a little darker and less conventional. But I really like the period Perry writes about, turn of the century England, and this series is interesting because it’s set around 1910, so it falls between Victorian England and World War I. Anne Perry is also the author of an excellent WWI historical series, which begins with No Graves as Yet, so I expect this series will lead up to the war.

I’m also fascinated by Anne Perry because of her past. At the age of fifteen, she helped to kill her friend’s mother in New Zealand, went to prison for five years, then changed her identity and moved to Scotland. She was the subject of Peter Jackson’s early film, Heavenly Creatures –a movie I found haunting before I ever knew it was about Anne Perry. Maybe I shouldn’t enjoy her work so much; or maybe there were extenuating circumstances. What I know is that Anne Perry knows first-hand about murder, hidden identities, human weakness, and redemption. All of these are common themes in her books, which makes them that much more fascinating to me.

But back to the book itself. Twenty-One Days is about young Daniel going to work as criminal defense attorney and assisting in two high-profile cases. As an assistant he’s working more on the investigative side than the legal side. Daniel’s a likable character; he’s enthusiastic, idealistic, and ready to learn, but he isn’t annoyingly brilliant.

The primary case is about a husband charged with murdering his wife, who’s found lying in their bedroom with most of her face burned off. The title refers to the 21 days attorneys have to file for an appeal after a defendant is convicted. Daniel and his colleagues have to work together to figure out what really happened in the case. And in the process, his own father is implicated.

This book has a lighter touch than many of Perry’s mysteries, but still raises some pretty serious issues, like domestic violence. I liked that Perry focused on scientific innovations of the time period, like the early use of fingerprints and autopsy analysis. The resolution of the larger mystery wasn’t obvious, and although there was an aspect of the resolution that didn’t make much sense to me (a spoiler so I won’t share) I enjoyed the book overall.

I might have preferred a mystery from a woman’s point of view, but Perry tends to be realistic about women’s options at the time. Her female characters are strong and intelligent but they tend to be wives and nurses, while their husbands are the detectives. Still, women’s issues tend to be front and center in her mysteries.

While I would have quite preferred a spinoff series based on Monk and Hester’s child rather than Thomas and Charlotte’s, I think fans of Anne Perry will enjoy this new mystery. If you’re new to Perry, I highly recommend Face of a Stranger.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Ballantine Books. This book published April 10, 2018.

Anne Perry, who has delighted readers with the lives of William Monk and Thomas Pitt, embarks on what I hope will be another prize-winning series. The son of Thomas Pitt, Daniel Pitt, is now a barrister facing his first clients. This peek into early 20th-century courtroom drama is filled with various kinds of dastardly deeds and misinformation, which Daniel must sort out. There are other barristers in the offices of fford Crawford and Gibson, and, of course, Thomas makes an appearance.

A very, very worthwhile read.

I read this EARC courtesy of Random House/Ballantine and Net Galley pub date 04/10/18

Twenty-one Days by Anne Perry is the first book in the new Daniel Pitt series, where the young lawyer races to save his client from execution while putting himself at odds with his own father: Thomas Pitt, head of London’s Special Police Branch.

Are we back in Thomas Pitt’s London, a world created by Anne Perry, populated with special investigators and criminals, and featuring Police Inspector Thomas Pitt and his well-born wife, Charlotte? No. The year is 1910, and it’s Daniel Pitt, the barrister son of Sir Thomas Pitt, who strides onto center stage. Fledgling lawyer Daniel is not much in contact with his well-connected family in Twenty-one Days, although he forges working relationships and alliances with his legal colleagues.

Unlike his father, Daniel is assured of his social status. His upbringing, his education reading law at Cambridge, his upper-class relatives—all combine to make him confident of his place in the world. Mirroring Thomas Pitt’s way of operating, Daniel is stubborn in the face of authority. He won’t allow himself to be torn away from his first case, even though he risks censure from his superiors.

Sir Thomas Pitt’s son, Daniel, is in the middle of his first case as a barrister when he is summoned to the Old Bailey for an important trial. Renowned biographer Russell Graves is charged with the brutal murder of his wife and Daniel must assist in his defense.

Daniel stays with his first case; fortunately, he wins the day.

“Disobedience won’t always turn out so well,” fford Croft warned, shaking his head. “Well, between the two of you, you have a disaster to rescue.”

“Sir?” Daniel and Kitteridge said almost in unison.

“Only an appeal can save Graves, and it needs to be lodged in good time. You have twenty-one days in which to get Graves out of the noose. Twenty days, tomorrow. You, Mr. Pitt, know very little of the law. Mr. Kitteridge, on the other hand, is possibly the best student of the law we have in this firm.”

Unusually, Daniel respects the abilities, insights, and professional contributions of women, including women of the servant class. Remember his parents’ Cockney maid Gracie, who eventually becomes an undercover investigator working alongside Charlotte Pitt? Daniel has a Gracie in his world. Every night when Daniel returns home to his lodging, his landlady, Mrs. Portiscale, invites him to have a cup of tea with her. “He never refused, because if he did she might stop asking.” She always asks how his work is going.

In exchange for her extra attention, Daniel often regaled her with accounts of his cases, though only sharing those elements in the public domain. He had told her about odd witnesses and jurors without ever mentioning names. He was surprised how astute she was at seeing through pretense. She often made guesses that seemed at first to him preposterous, but that turned out to be accurate.

Forensic science is in its infancy in 1910; it’s fascinating stuff—fingerprints and skeletal x-rays turn the tide in Daniel’s trials. He’s a novice in the emerging partnership of criminal defense and science, but he’s dogged and persistent.

Tracking down a way to successfully defend his first client, Daniel knocks on expert witness Dr. Ottershaw’s door at one in the morning: “I do know what time it is—but I have an idea, and Roman Blackwell’s life might rest on it.” Daniel isn’t a skeptic, but he is untutored, which shows on his face when Ottershaw takes him down to the lab. The older man calls him on it.

“Ah!” he said with satisfaction. “You took me for an eccentric, didn’t you? Not at all. Most practical man. Science doesn’t lie, we merely misunderstand her sometimes. We find what we expect to find, or worse still, what we want to.”

Could Ottershaw be pointing a finger at fake data? Nevertheless, Daniel moves to demonstrate the science behind fingerprints in the courtroom. The judge is reluctant to let Daniel proceed: “I do hope this is not a diversionary tactic of desperation, Mr. Pitt?” Perhaps, but Daniel responds immediately, “No, my lord. Far from it.” The jury is skeptical too, but here, Anne Perry skillfully exposes the vulnerabilities of the emerging English middle class. Daniel asks his expert witness if he is “quite sure all people’s fingerprints are different?” and lets Dr. Ottershaw opine.

“You, sir,” he looked at a large, impressive man, very well dressed. It was easy to imagine he had a good opinion of himself. “Your fingerprints are unique to you. They are not exactly the same as those of any other man on earth.”

The juror took it as a compliment, and it showed in his face.

“It matters,” Ottershaw continued. “The whorls, the ridges, the islands, features and dimensions in the lines you can barely see with the naked eye, they are unique to you. More so even than your signature.”

That appeal to the uniqueness of each of the jurors sways the jury. They are convinced the defendant is not guilty because his fingerprints cannot be found on the murder weapon. Doggedness, persistence, a flair for the unusual—these are Daniel’s weapons in the courtroom. He partners with scientists of both sexes, asks (and re-asks) searching questions of the oft-overlooked servant class, and searches out gossip and speculation, all in service of his clients and the law. Twenty-one Days is a very credible and enjoyable debut for the new Daniel Pitt series.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Set in 1910, Twenty-one Days opens with young barrister Daniel Pitt defending a wealthy man of dubious reputation. Murder is the charge and Pitt’s father is associated with the former police officer standing trial. While the young lawyer is smart and clever, he is worried that he is in over his head. To make matters worse, there is another man on trial for killing his wife in a most brutal way and Pitt is needed the next day to take the place of an injured co-worker so he must wrap up the trial the next morning or the accused will then have to start over with a new defense attorney. Good or bad, Pitt had to finish and be in court at the Old Bailey – the most famous court in the British Empire.

He makes it to court, albeit late.  Kitterage is the lawyer in charge; Pitt will be doing as told. Unfortunately things go south in a hurry. The distasteful accused claimed innocence but it seemed unlikely anyone else could have brutally murdered his wife. Not only was she murdered, but horribly disfigured by burning her face and upper torso after death. This trial does not go the way Kitterage and Pitt planned. Their client was quickly found guilty and set to hang in twenty-one days. He was not a pleasant man, as a matter of fact he was most distasteful. But he was entitled to every effort of his two attorneys to win an appeal to keep him from the hangman’s noose.

To further complicate Kitterage and Pitt’s job even further, the accused has countless enemies due to a controversial manuscript he intends to publish. At best it includes damning information of several highly recognizable and influential citizens. Unfortunately, it borders on treason at the highest level, which is alienating him from the men hired to keep him from hanging. Pitt finds himself working day and night to help the man that just might “rip the masks off of people we regard as heroes” – twenty-one days to do the impossible.

This is the first book in award winning author Anne Perry’s new series starring Daniel Pitt, but it is the 33rd book in the Pitt series. It is the first one I’ve read, but I did not feel confused or that I was missing something in the story for not having started with the entire Pitt series. It is easy to see why Perry is an internationally renowned historical novelist. Her intriguing plot, engaging prose and multidimensional characters are skillfully woven into a page turning book that will delight mystery lovers worldwide.  Ms. Perry is second to none when writing historical fiction.

Copyright © 2018 Laura Hartman

This is the first Anne Perry book I have read. I enjoyed the read and the story. What is always fun is learning new things, and in this book you are with the main character Daniel Pitt as he learns about advances in forensic science. In his first trial the very new fingerprinting analysis is instrumental in proving innocence and in his second the use of X-Rays to determine prior behaviors. I liked Daniel Pitt he seemed believable and likable. I am sure this series will be very popular. There is a plausible mystery and the suspense is doled out well. I imagine as the authors pens new tales of his life more personality and backgrounds of other characters will evolve.

Fans of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series will likely be delighted to read this first mystery featuring Daniel Pitt, their son. Daniel is a novice barrister, and after getting an unlikely innocent verdict for his client, he is assigned to help out with another murder defense, This time he dislikes the accused intensely, but is determined to do his best to get him declared innocent, even though the accused has authored an inflammatory book that will disgrace the Pitt family and their closest friends. The ethical dilemma Daniel faces is clearly presented, and readers will become engrossed in his detective work to get to the bottom of the crime. Meanwhile, Daniel gets assistance from his boss's daughter, an unusually independent physician who is interested in forensics. I'll certainly look forward to further installments about Daniel.

Twenty-one Days by Anne Perry is the debut novel in a new series from the author who brought us William Monk as well as Charlotte and Thomas Pitt. The new series features Daniel Pitt, a young barrister, the son of Charlotte and Thomas. He is the least senior barrister at a prestigious law firm in London, possibly hired because he is his father's son. He is trying his first case, a murder charge against Roman Blackwell who requested him or it would never have been allowed. Blackwell is a private inquiry agent who has his own individual morality and had been an officer when Thomas Pitt had been a Bow Street. Daniel was doing his best, but even he was not entirely convinced Blackwell was innocent.

As luck would have it, Daniel had to finish his case quickly, as a more senior member of the firm needed him to assist at a murder trial at Old Bailey, but he cleverly found proof that Blackwell was innocent. The accused at Old Bailey was a much higher profile client than Blackwell and has been found guilty and sentenced to be hung in 21 days. Pitt and the senior barrister have that much time to find a reason for a retrial. The Head of Chambers, Marcus fford Croft, has requested this of his staff and has offered his spinster daughter, who has studied Chemistry and Medicine, to assist. Miriam turned out to be invaluable in their quest. She is kind of a rebel and because of the time, have no degree and no standing in the scientific community. Daniel is fascinated by her.

It is delightful to see a new series launch, to meet the people who will become the basis of the new series, especially when the new series is written by an author you can count on and is full of people you already know. I enjoy the formality of these books as well as how historically accurate they are. Perry is a master. I heartily recommend this new series if you are a fan at all. If the other series are intimidating based on how many books there are, here is your chance to begin at the beginning and grow with the series.

I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for posting a review. #netgalley

The amazingly prolific Anne Perry gives her fans a second generation of stories arising from the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series. Perry has given us short pieces about Pitt's children, and now we have a full novel about their son Daniel's first days as a barrister. This is just as riveting as any of Perry's many books, focusing on crime from the perspective of the courtroom. Interestingly, Perry weaves in a tight relationship to Thomas Pitt's work and reputation in relation to Daniel's case. Highly entertaining, immensely thoughtful, and simply fascinating in both characterization and plot. Fans of Perry will devour this first Daniel Pitt novel and will clamor for more. Legal fans will find much to enjoy.

Anne Perry’s Twenty-One Days is the first book in a new series that follows Daniel Pitt, junior barrister and son of Detective Thomas Pitt (from Perry’s popular Thomas Pitt series). When the novel opens, Daniel has minimal experience in the courtroom and yet somehow finds himself assigned to defend a famous client, biographer Russell Graves, who is charged with having murdered his wife. When the trial doesn’t go well and Graves ends up sentenced to death even though he insists that he is innocent, Daniel is given twenty-one days to find out what really happened and file an appeal. If he can’t find something in those twenty-one days, Graves will be executed.

It’s a race against the clock that takes Daniel in a direction he never expected to go in, one that could ruin the reputation of London’s Special Police Branch, where Daniel’s beloved father works as a detective.

Will Daniel find the truth? Will the truth free or condemn his client? How does the Special Police Branch fit into the picture?

First, let me start by saying that even though the Daniel Pitt series is a spin-off series from Anne Perry’s popular Thomas Pitt series (Daniel is Thomas’ son and is still a child in the earlier series), it can still easily be enjoyed as a standalone. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything relevant by not having read the earlier series. That said, however, I enjoyed this book so much and was intrigued enough by every mention of Thomas Pitt that, at some point, I may go back and read the Thomas Pitt series.

Daniel Pitt was absolutely my favorite part of Twenty-One Days. I found him to be witty and charming, which made him a fun character to follow, but at the same time, I also loved how naïve and unsure of himself he could be at times because he’s brand new to his chosen profession and has been thrown into this huge case by chance. I’m always a sucker for a likeable underdog and that description fits Daniel to a T. Daniel had many qualities that I found endearing, such as his fierce loyalty to his father. But even as devoted as he is to his father, Daniel is still determined to find out the truth to see if it could help his client, even if the truth could possibly turn out to be something Daniel ultimately doesn’t want to hear because it could negative impact the Special Police Branch and by extension, his father. I really admired that he was willing to make such tough choices.

In addition to Daniel, I also really liked the secondary characters, so much so that I hope they will all continue to play active roles in future books. There’s Kitteridge, the senior barrister that Daniel gets partnered with on his big case. At first these two are like oil and water because Kitteridge feels put out that he has to work alongside this newbie on such a major case, but they eventually come together as a pretty dynamic duo when it comes to working all aspects of the case in and out of the courtroom.

Then there’s Miriam, who adds a touch of Feminism to the story. She has gone to medical school and studied to become what we would probably now consider to be a Medical Examiner, but because she’s a woman, she was never awarded an actual degree. She’s clearly a little bitter about this but is excited when she is called upon to help Daniel with his case. Miriam is smart, tough, funny, and I think she and Daniel may have a bit of a mutual attraction going on. It’s subtle but adorable, and I would totally ship it if they do in fact become a couple.

In addition to this fun cast of characters, the setting of Twenty-One Days also very much appealed to me. It’s set in London in the 1910’s, and the author does a wonderful job of capturing the time period and the location. Although this book is set a bit later than Arthur Conan Doyle’s books, I still got a bit of Sherlock Holmes vibe as I was reading it. I love the Sherlock Holmes series, so this was definitely a plus for me.

I’m kind of a CSI junkie so one of my favorite elements of this book was the forensic science that comes into play. With the story being set in the 1910’s, we’re still in the very early days of fingerprints, etc. so sometimes it could be risky to try to introduce a science that was still so little understood. I loved the tension that the use of forensics actually added to the story because Daniel and his scientist friend Miriam have to find just the right balance – they need to explain how fingerprints work in such a way that there is no misunderstanding how the science works but without coming across as condescending to the jury. The last thing Daniel needs to do is alienate the group of people who hold his client’s fate in their hands.

And speaking of Daniel’s client and his case, the mystery in this first book was really solid too. It had lots of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and kept me on the edge of my seat for much of the book.

The only real issue I had was that occasionally, especially in the early pages, the pacing was a little slow. I’m chalking it up to all of the setting the stage that is in involved in starting a new series and introducing all of the major characters, etc. Once I settled into the story though, it moved along at a nice, steady pace.

Twenty-One Days is a solid first book in Perry’s new series. I think fans of the earlier Thomas Pitt series will enjoy seeing young Daniel all grown up, but I also think that those who have never read about the Pitt family before will enjoy this new series just as well. The characters are well drawn and it’s a lot of fun watching them come together as a team. I look forward to continuing the series and watching them work their way through more twists and turns to uncover the truth on future cases.

I tried to read this book a few times. I just could not get into it. I felt like I was missing a back story? Sorry

This book was a great read. The mystery and the characters were well-written. I now need to go read the rest by this author!

Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels are some of my very favorite mysteries. Twenty-One Days is her first book about their son, Daniel Pitt, an attorney just starting out in London, and it is just as wonderful as all the rest of her books. I love the courtroom drama, the mystery, the investigation and of course the ever-existing conflicts between and within the classes in Victorian England, such as the struggle for women's rights, especially the right to vote and own property. Anne Perry brings these injustices to the forefront in very compelling ways.

Twenty-One Days is a book to savor and lets you immerse yourself in Daniel Pitt's London. I especially enjoyed that his parents were also part of this story. This book obviously can stand alone but has left me longing to go back and read Charlotte and Thomas' mysteries again. I highly recommend this book -- it is truly Anne Perry at her best.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own.

This is a very good who-done-it with several twists. Daniel Pitt is s new lawyer doing his absolute best to Win his case even though he has minimal experience. The case makes him question his parents and the system.

I was almost hesitant to read this book because I have enjoyed Ms Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt books so much that I was a little afraid that this new series based on their grown son Daniel would seem weak or contrived in comparison, but I am not sorry to admit that I was wrong.
In this book we jump right into the action, and right in to the middle of a murder trial where Daniel is working for the defense. He saves the day, and then is immediately pulled into another important trial, in which some of the details call into question the honesty of his father, some close family friends, and even the government. Trying to prove that this information isn’t true becomes just as important to Daniel as winning his clients freedom.
I also thought it was very interesting to see how Daniel and his associates work with what is new technology back then when they use an X-Ray machine to help prove their case.
I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next in the series.
I was given a free preview copy of this book by Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The first Daniel Pitt novel is a spin-off of Anne Perry's long-running mystery series set in Victorian England, featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt.

Their son Daniel is now a lawyer working for the small law firm of fford Croft and Gibson and he is fresh off a big win when he is unexpectedly called in to assist the esteemed lawyer Kitteridge in a murder trial after unforeseen circumstances have created a vacancy. When this trial is lost and their client sentenced to be hanged, they have twenty-one days in which to find some new piece of evidence or legal grounds for appeal to stay the execution. Daniel takes over the investigative role while the more experienced Kitteridge looks into the legal aspects.

In the early 1900s, forensics is very much a fledgling science and it's interesting to see how this plays a role in trying to solve the case. There are plenty of satisfying twists and turns to this mystery and some remarkable characters, but one of the biggest draws is the historical setting which gives the reader a glimpse into English society in the early 1900s. A good start to what will most likely be a popular new series for Ms Perry to pursue.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for providing me with an arc of this new Victorian mystery.

This is the beginning of an all new series from Anne Perry. I enjoyed the way that Perry introduced the interesting character of Daniel Pitt, a lawyer who is a mere 25 years old. She makes his person appealing by having him show a sense of empathy and a desire to do better than simply follow the letter of the law. This tale becomes more engrossing by involving Daniel's father, head of the Special Branch, a respectable character in danger of having his reputation besmirched by one of Daniel's clients, whom Daniel must exonerate of murder but then place behind bars for other reasons. Perry also gives prime coverage in this book to some very bright and capable female characters and showcases how far women's rights still had to go in 1910 Britain.