Treachery at Lancaster Gate (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #31)

Treachery at Lancaster Gate by Anne Perry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was nice to have Tellman and Gracie play a central role in this book, I have missed their characters.

When 2 policemen are killed outright and 3 are grievously injured in a bombing Special Branch is brought in as the bombing is blamed on anarchist. Tellman is the police liaison with Pitt. The reunion of the two friends doesn't go smoothly though as Tellman is outraged when Pitt suggest that the bombing was aimed specifically at the five policemen due to some misdoing on their part. But Tellman's innate honesty soon has him investigating the policemen in question and to his dismay he discovers that they were indeed guilty of wrong doing.

Meanwhile Pitt is forced into arresting the young man responsible for the bombing. Alexander Duncannon is a young man with a powerful Father. A riding accident has left him in unbearable and unending pain with no chance of the injury ever healing. Sadly he became hooked on opium and formed a friendship with Dylan Lezant another young man addicted to opium. One night when they were out buying opium the police were there an innocent bystander was killed and the police swore that Lezant shot him. Lezant was convicted and hung on the testimony of the five police officers who swore that Lezant shot the bystander and that Alexander wasn't there. Alexander tried to get someone to listen to him, but no one would take him seriously. Realizing that he is dying from his injuries and the opium Alexander decided the bombing was the only way to get justice for his friend and expose the police corruption.

Meanwhile the corrupt policemen corner Tellman in an ally and attempt to kill him. Thanks to Stoker's network of spies, Stoker, Pitt and Jack Radley arrive in time to save him.

Abercorn (who hates Godfrey Duncannon and has political ambitions) is the prosecutor in Alexander's case Narraway undertakes Alexander's defense against his Father;s (Godfrey) wishes. Narraway is determined to help Alexander get the justice he risked everything for. But it is Pitt who reveals that Abercorn was the drug dealer who kept giving Alexander more and stronger doses of opium and that Abercorn as Godfrey's bastard son was determined to destroy Alexander and set the terrible events in motion.

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