Anne Perry

Truth may indeed be stranger than fiction when it comes to the life of mystery novelist Anne Perry.  In 1994, on the day before a film entitled Heavenly Creatures was about to debut, word leaked that Perry was involved in the true crime that served as the movie’s inspiration.  In 1954, 15-year-old Julie Marion Hulme, as she was then known, was convicted and sent to prison for 5 years for helping her best friend murder the friend’s mother.

The news took the publishing world by storm, and although the revelation of her notorious past was “one of the worst days of my life,” according to Perry, she naively believed that anyone would find a 40-year-old murder of little interest.

The furor did die down, and Perry’s career was not harmed in the least.  Indeed, sales of her works now exceed ten million copies.

Born in London, England, in 1938, Perry endured a series of life-threatening illnesses as a child.  She would eventually be sent to live with a foster family who moved her from England to the Bahamas and ultimately to New Zealand where, she says, she “lived a Swiss Family Robinson style of independence — a lot of fishing, building, boating, etc.”  After she was released from prison, Juliet Hulme legally changed her name to that of her stepfather (Perry) and split her time between Britain and the United States, working a series of odd jobs while writing fantasies and historical novels that never got into print.  It would not be until 1979 that her first murder mystery, The Cater Street Hangman, would be published.

Since then, Perry has earned an international following for her Victorian-era mysteries that have been applauded for their anachronistic depiction of autonomous and persistent female sleuths, as well as for their ingenuous attention to the moral dilemmas and motivations that lie beneath the surface of polite society. 

The Christmas Series

A Christmas Journey  (LP only)
A Christmas Visitor (LP, ***)
A Christmas Guest (**, ***)
A Christmas Secret (*)

Featuring William Monk

A Breach of Promise (LP)
Cain His Brother (LP)
A Dangerous Mourning (ER)
Dark Assassin  (LP, ***)
Death of a Stranger
Defend and Betray (ER)
Face of a Stranger (ER, LP)
Funeral in Blue (LP)
The Shifting Tide (LP)
The Silent Cry  (LP)
The Sins of the Wolf (**, LP)
Slaves of Obsession
A Sudden, Fearful Death  (ER)
The Twisted Root
Weighed in the Balance

Featuring Thomas Pitt

Ashworth Hall (LP)
Bedford Square (**, ***, LP)
Belgrave Square (**, ***)
Bethlehem Road (**)
Bluegate Fields (LP)
Brunswick Gardens (LP)
Callander Square (**, ER)
Cardington Crescent (**)
The Cater Street Hangman  (**, ER, Video)
Death in Devl’s Acre (LP)
Farrier’s Lane (**)
Half Moon Street
Highgate Rise (**, ***, ER)
Hyde Park Headsman, The (**)
Long Spoon Lane (***, LP)
Paragon Walk (**, LP, ER)
Pentecost Alley
Resurrection Row (***, ER)
Rutland Place (**, LP)
Silence in Hanover Close (**)
Southampton Row (LP)
Traitor’s Gate (LP)
The Whitechapel Conspiracy

World War I Series

Angels in the Gloom (LP)
Shoulder the Sky (LP)

Other Works

A Dish Taken Cold
Just Like Always (Children’s Book)
Tathea