Review: TWENTY-ONE DAYS by Anne Perry (A Daniel Pitt Novel)
/18 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: A Christmas Revelation
Series: Daniel Pitt #1
Published by Ballantine Books on April 10, 2018
Genres: Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
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.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
In this first book in a new series, Thomas Pitt’s son Daniel races to save his client from execution, setting him against London’s Special Police Branch.
It’s 1910, and Daniel Pitt is a reluctant lawyer who would prefer to follow in the footsteps of his detective father. When the biographer Russell Graves, who Daniel is helping defend, is sentenced to execution for the murder of his wife, Daniel’s Pitt-family investigative instincts kick in, and he sets out to find the real killer. With only twenty-one days before Graves is to be executed, Daniel learns that Graves is writing a biography of Victor Narraway, the former head of Special Branch and a close friend of the Pitts. And the stories don’t shed a positive light. Is it possible someone is framing Graves to keep him from writing the biography–maybe even someone Daniel knows in Special Branch?
The only answer, it seems, lies in the dead woman’s corpse. And so, with the help of some eccentric new acquaintances who don’t mind bending the rules, Daniel delves into an underground world of dead bodies and double lives, unearthing scores of lies and conspiracies. As he struggles to balance his duty to the law with his duty to his family, the equal forces of justice and loyalty pull this lawyer-turned-detective in more directions than he imagined possible. And amidst it all, his client’s twenty-one days are ticking away.
About Anne Perry
Anne Perry (born Juliet Hulme) is a British historical novelist.
Juliet took the name “Anne Perry,” the latter being 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 of them feature a number of recurring characters, most importantly Thomas 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. As of 2003 she had published 47 novels, and several collections of short stories. Her story “Heroes,” which first appeared the 1999 anthology Murder and Obsession, edited by Otto Penzler, won the 2001 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.
Recently she was included as an entry in Ben Peek’s Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, a novel exploring the nature of truth in literature.
Series contributed to:
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
. Malice Domestic
. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories
. Transgressions
. The Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
Weekly Recap #49: Week of 4/15 – 4/21
/30 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
I guess the big news of the week is obviously that I made it through the tax deadline that has had me working 6 day weeks for so many months! It was exhausting and the IRS experienced an outage on deadline day that made it so we couldn’t check to see if our clients’ returns had actually been accepted, so that didn’t exactly help, but they ended up giving everyone a one-day extension and everything worked out in the end. Woo Hoo! We had our after-tax party on Friday night, which is always a lot of fun, and I’ve spent most of the rest of the week catching up on sleep, reading, and watching TV. I did start getting caught up on my blog visits too, so if I haven’t made it to you yet, I’ll be there soon!
Aside from work, soccer once again dominated my week. After our 0-4 loss last weekend, we bounced back on Monday night was a 1-1 tie against the toughest team in their league. Our team had never won or tied against them before, so the tie this week felt like a victory! We then went on to win our game yesterday 1-0 in another nail biter. The team is looking better and better, and are passing more, so this passionate soccer mom is much more content than she was last weekend, lol.
I didn’t get nearly as much reading done this week as I would have liked, but Girl Made of Stars was the standout of what I did read. I can’t wait to write and post my review for that one. It was a super emotional read that made me shed a few tears on more than one occasion.
I think that’s about it for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [15 Apr] Weekly Recap #48: Week of 4/8 – 4/14
- [16 Apr] School for Psychics by K.C. Archer ★★★½
- [17 Apr] Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Books People Keep Telling Me to Read…But I Still Haven’t (Yet!)
- [18 Apr] Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY by Brigid Kemmerer
- [20 Apr] Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young ★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Review: SKY IN THE DEEP by Adrienne Young
/28 Comments/by SuzannePublished by Wednesday Books on April 24, 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
As soon as I realized Sky in the Deep was about Vikings, it immediately became one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. (Have I mentioned that I love Viking stories?) I was hoping for an exciting, action-packed read, and I’m thrilled to say that I got that and so much more. Sky in the Deep opens with our main character, 17 year old Eelyn, and her Aska clan engaged in battle with their lifelong enemies, the Riki clan. The fighting is fierce and the energy is electric, but all of that fades away when Eelyn sees something on the battlefield she never expects to see – her brother, who she watched die in battle five years ago, apparently alive and well and fighting for her enemy. It’s a total WTF moment and I was immediately hooked and, like Eelyn, I had so many questions that I wanted answers to.
How is it possible that Eelyn’s brother is there if she actually saw him die? And why in the world would he be fighting against his own people and for his sworn enemy?
During one of the clashes between the Aska and Riki, Eelyn is captured and taken up into the mountains to the Riki village. If she can survive winter in the mountains surrounded by all of her enemies, she has the opportunity to confront her brother face to face and demand answers.
But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan who has also attacked the Aska village in the past – the same clan who killed Eelyn’s mother — Eelyn becomes desperate to get back to her family. It becomes clear that if the Aska and the Riki are going to survive, they’re going to need to work together to defeat their common enemy.
Can Eelyn convince her father that the Riki are not their enemy and that they need each other?
Eelyn was such an epic main character. I really loved her. She’s a fierce and proud Aska warrior and her loyalty to both her family and her clan knows no bounds. Some of my favorite scenes from Sky in the Deep are those scenes where Eelyn is out there fighting like a total badass on the battlefield. What I also loved about her character though is that she’s not all fierceness and badassery – she’s also a vulnerable and conflicted sister who fears that her brother is a traitor to her people and doesn’t know what to do about it or how to feel about it. I thought the author did an incredible job of conveying every emotion Eelyn was feeling. Her pain was palpable, as was her anger, her initial hatred of the Riki, her feelings of betrayal, etc. Everything about Eelyn was so vividly depicted that it was just very easy to feel a connection with her.
Sky in the Deep is one of those books that I would consider to be the best of both worlds – if you enjoy action-packed battle scenes, you’ll love it, but if you enjoy character and relationship-driven stories, you’ll love it too. The battle scenes were truly thrilling. There were axes and swords flying everywhere and I was on the edge of my seat each time Eelyn fought, hoping that she would make it through unscathed. The scenes were vivid and somewhat graphic but didn’t really veer over into outright gory territory, which worked well for me.
As if those action-packed scenes weren’t fabulous enough, the book is also filled with relationships that just really got to me. I’ve already mentioned the conflicted relationship between Eelyn and her brother. That one just broke my heart because Eelyn was so crushed to think her brother was a traitor. I really wanted to hate him for hurting Eelyn with his betrayal, but then we hear his side of the story, and everything I initially thought of him got turned on its head and I just wanted brother and sister to reconcile so badly.
The brother-sister relationship takes center stage when it comes to relationships, but it’s not the only relationship by far. I thought the author did a beautiful job depicting the evolution of the relationship between the Aska and Riki clans once they realize they face a common threat and need to band together if they hope to survive. I loved the range of emotions that she has the various Aska and Riki clanspeople, Eelyn and her captor Fiske in particular, move through – the long-standing hatred, the mistrust, the curiosity, tentative acceptance, friendship, etc. These relationships were all so messy and so realistic and I just ate them up!
And yes, there is a romantic relationship as well. And guess what? I didn’t hate it! Why? Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that it was a subtle relationship that gradually developed over the course of the story and I never felt like it took over the story or distracted from anything else that was going on. There’s no insta-love at all – in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s enemies to lovers all the way, which apparently I’m a huge fan of!
Even though I loved Sky in the Deep overall, I did have a bit of an issue with uneven pacing. Those action-packed battle scenes had me absolutely flying through the pages, as did the scenes where Eelyn confronted her brother or where she clashed with her captors. But then I would hit the occasional lull when the story focused more on the day-to-day life of the Riki and Eelyn’s thoughts as she watched them and did chores for them.
These domestic-focused chapters were still beautifully written– let me be very clear on that– and they definitely served a purpose, which was to show Eelyn that her sworn enemies are normal people just like she and her fellow Aska are. My issue was mainly that reading about sewing and gardening and other chores just felt a little mundane in comparison to the adrenaline rush that goes along with reading about someone slashing and hacking their way across a battlefield. I think this would have been a 5-star read for me if there had been fewer passages that dealt with household chores.
Sky in the Deep is a fantastic read that has something for everyone. If you’re into character-driven books that feature fierce females and plenty of complicated relationships, then this is a book for you. However, if you’re into action-packed stories that feature warring Viking clans, this is a book for you too. And finally, if you’re into a slow-burn romance featuring enemies who suddenly don’t hate each other quite as much as they thought they did, then yes, Sky in the Deep is for you as well.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.
Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.
Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.
She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.
About Adrienne Young
Adrienne Young is a born and bred Texan turned California girl. She is a foodie with a deep love of history and travel and a shameless addiction to coffee. When she’s not writing, you can find her on her yoga mat, scouring antique fairs for old books, sipping wine over long dinners, or disappearing into her favorite art museums. She lives with her documentary filmmaker husband and their four little wildlings beneath the West Coast sun.