Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel - Softcover

Buch 1 von 7: Daniel Pitt

Perry, Anne

 
9780399179907: Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0399179909 ISBN 13: 9780399179907
Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

In the first book of an all-new 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 Branch.

“[Anne] Perry’s excellent new series launch expertly takes the Pitts into a new century.”—Library Journal (starred review)

1910: Twenty-five-year-old Daniel Pitt is a junior barrister in London and eager to prove himself, independent of his renowned parents’ influence. And the new case before him will be the test. When his client, arrogant biographer Russell Graves, is found guilty of murdering his wife, Daniel is dispatched to find the real killer before Graves faces the hangman’s noose—in only twenty-one days.

Could Mrs. Graves’s violent death have anything to do with her husband’s profession? Someone in power may be framing the biographer to keep damaging secrets from coming to light. It is a theory that leads Daniel’s investigation unexpectedly to London’s Special Branch—and, disturbingly, to one of his father’s closest colleagues.

Caught between duty to the law and a fierce desire to protect his family, Daniel must call on his keen intellect—and trust his natural instincts—to find the truth in a tangle of dark deception, lest an innocent man hang for another’s heinous crime.

Praise for Twenty-One Days

“Readers will quickly fall in love with [Daniel] Pitt, following along as he investigates a gruesome murder and chuckling as he throws those involved off kilter. Perry is a master at bringing setting to life, and readers will be taken in by the time and place as they get to know Daniel Pitt and those close to him in this engaging novel.”—RT Book Reviews

“The maven of well-crafted Victorian mysteries and author of both the William Monk series and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries introduces the Pitts’ son, Daniel, junior barrister, in this first of what proves to be an intriguing, entertaining, and character-centric new series. . . . Perry introduces Daniel and his cohort, the brilliant Miriam Fforde Croft, and raises the knotty question of whether some clients are truly undefendable.”—Booklist

“[Anne Perry] seems just as comfortable in 1910 as she ever did back in Victoria’s day.”—Kirkus Reviews

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Anne Perry was the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. She was also the author of a series featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's son, Daniel, as well as the Elena Standish series; a series of five World War I novels; twenty-one holiday novels; and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Byzantine Empire. Anne Perry died in 2023.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

chapter

One

They were alone in the small room where the accused was allowed to take visits with his lawyer.

“They’ll hang me, won’t they?” Roman Blackwell’s soft voice was almost steady, but Daniel could see the fear in his eyes. What should he say? He had been dreading this moment all day. The trial was going badly and Daniel was hardly a year qualified to practice law, let alone to defend a man on trial for his life.

But how could he have refused? Daniel’s father, Sir Thomas Pitt, had asked the head of the law firm if he would allow Daniel to take the case. Blackwell was a private inquiry agent and something of an adventurer. Perhaps some of his cases were dubious, his clients not the most obviously innocent.

Blackwell had been a policeman at the time when Pitt was at Bow Street, long before Pitt had joined Special Branch. He had liked Blackwell, understood not only his sense of humor, but his individual morality. Pitt had saved Blackwell more than once from the consequences of his more quixotic and irregular actions. Blackwell had, on occasion, saved Pitt, too. But the time finally came when Pitt begged Blackwell to leave the police, before he made a mistake from which he could not escape. Reluctantly, Blackwell had taken his advice.

Pitt had never forgotten their friendship, and now that Blackwell had fallen seriously afoul of the law, the best Pitt could do for him was to ask Daniel to represent him in court.

Daniel could not refuse. He, too, liked Blackwell, probably for all the same reasons that his father did: his wry humor, his optimism and his imagination.

Daniel frankly found the law far more tedious than he had expected to. The study of it had been interesting at university, but the actuality involved mountains of detailed paperwork. There was nothing glamorous in it, none of the crusading activity he had hoped for.

He was a novice, feeling his inexperience with some pain. He was up against Douglas Sefton, who was skilled, articulate and determined at this, his fifth attempt to finally convict Roman Blackwell for something—­this time for murder.

Blackwell was watching Daniel, waiting for him to answer. He would recognize a lie if he heard one. And what was the use of Daniel lying anyway? Blackwell would only resent it.

“Yes, they will hang you,” Daniel replied very quietly. “Which is why we have to prove you did not kill John Hinton.”

“Reasonable doubt?” Blackwell tried to put hope in his voice, but for once the charm and the music in it did not work.

“We’re beyond reasonable,” Daniel answered as gently as he could. “They’ll need very strong doubt indeed, and someone the jury can believe is guilty, if you aren’t.”

“I’m not!” Blackwell’s voice cracked. The desperation was there for only an instant, but it was unmistakable. “I never even touched the gun!”

“Neither did anyone else, according to the fingerprints—­”

“What fingerprints?” Blackwell heatedly demanded. “There were none!”

“Somebody fired it,” Daniel pointed out.

“Gloves on?” Blackwell asked with sudden light in his face. “That means somebody who knew about fingerprints, knew that everyone’s are different!”

“The Chinese have known about them for centuries,” Daniel told him. It was a piece of information he found particularly interesting. It was just five years ago, actually—­in 1905—­that fingerprints had first been used to identify two murderers and convict them in a British court.

“If you didn’t kill him, someone else did. There’s no question Hinton was shot—­deliberately. And unfortunately, there is no doubt that you knew him well, and quarreled over a debt . . .”

“Only a few pounds!” Blackwell said indignantly. “I’m not going to kill a man over a few quid!”

“Park says it was four hundred,” Daniel pointed out. “That’s a lot of money.”

“So it is,” Blackwell agreed. “And I’m going to lend that much to a chancer like Hinton? I’m not a complete fool!”

Daniel smiled bleakly. “You’re generous occasionally, Roman. And—­”

“Not that generous!” Blackwell said incredulously.

“—­known to drink a little too freely, and then forget what you’ve done?” Daniel finished.

“I never forget money,” Blackwell said fiercely. “Not that much!”

“Not even when you are . . .” he hesitated, then went on, “. . . thoroughly drunk?”

“I couldn’t even if I wished to.” Blackwell shook his head. “I haven’t got that much . . . at least I hadn’t then.”

“Can you prove that?” Daniel knew there was no way he could.

“I didn’t kill him,” Blackwell repeated desperately. His face puckered at the unreasonableness of it. “Why would I lend that kind of money to a lowdown article like Hinton? It makes no sense.”

“They’ll say you were drunk at the time,” Daniel replied reasonably. “Look, Roman, there’s no point in arguing something we can’t prove.” He leaned forward a little over the table between them. “The only way to change the jury’s minds is to make them seriously consider somebody else. If Hinton was not as useless as the prosecution says, he will have had other enemies. Think carefully. Who were they, and why? Think of people he cheated, lied to or lied about. People he got into trouble. People he could have been a witness against.”

Blackwell thought hard. He was a big man, not tall, but broad and strong, with a shock of jet-­black hair. Only lately, he seemed to have shrunk into himself, as if he were retreating without actually moving from the hard wooden chair.

Daniel searched for something to encourage Blackwell with, not only for kindness’ sake, but also because Blackwell was the only source of information that could implicate anyone else, or at least provide Daniel with another course to follow.

Blackwell looked up hopelessly.

Oscar Park was the main witness against Blackwell, and Daniel had not made a dent in his testimony yet. He felt he was clutching at straws. “Well then, what can we find out about Park to make the jury doubt him? Hinton owed you money; he’s no use to you dead.”

“He’s no use alive either,” Blackwell said with a wry smile. “Do you think that counts?”

Daniel was too desperate to return the smile. “If Park is lying on the witness stand, why? It’s a big risk he’s taking. There must be a reason, and we’ve got to find it.”

“I don’t know,” Blackwell said wearily. “I never did him any harm.”

Daniel leaned forward a little farther. “It doesn’t have to be as direct as that. Come on! You’ve got enough imagination to see the oblique. What do we know as fact? You didn’t lend Hinton four hundred pounds, whether he paid it back or not. And how would Park know anyway? That’s the price of a small house. Did he owe that money to Park?”

“Maybe. Park was tight,” Blackwell responded. “I once lent him fifty pounds, and he never paid me back.”

“That could be something. I wonder if he owed anyone else? Who else can I call?...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Random House Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0399179909
ISBN 13 
9780399179907
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
336
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780399179884: Twenty-one Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0399179887 ISBN 13:  9780399179884
Verlag: Ballantine Books, 2018
Hardcover