Two violent crimes challenge the investigative skills of young Daniel Pitt and his wife, Miriam, in the final novel of iconic mystery writer Anne Perry's beloved Daniel Pitt series. Halfway written at the time of her death, this novel was completed by Perry’s trusted colleague, dear friend, and fellow author Victoria Zackheim.
1912: Junior attorney Daniel Pitt must step in for his friend and fellow attorney, Toby Kitteridge, whose parents have been brutally attacked. Toby's mother is dead and his father, the local vicar, is barely alive. With Toby back home in rural Ipswich, struggling with his grief and disbelief, Daniel is left in London to defend Peter Ward, a man on trial for the sexual assault and murder of a young woman.
Daniel is convinced that Ward is innocent, yet the evidence proves otherwise. Eager to assist, his pathologist wife Miriam fford Croft offers her forensics expertise regarding a community of fellow pathologists who have disguised their autopsy reports. Despite Miriam on the case, Daniel finds himself distracted by his desire to help Toby, still in Ipswich and too distraught to investigate the attack on his parents. When all evidence points to Toby’s father as the killer, Daniel faces two of the greatest challenges of his young career: to prove the innocence of both Peter Ward and Reverend Kitteridge. One mistake in London and a young man will hang. One mistake in Ipswich and Toby’s father will go to prison for life.
Death Times Seven, the seventh and final novel in Anne Perry’s Daniel Pitt series, has been completed with the assistance of Victoria Zackheim, an author and editor, as well as Perry’s close friend. Rich in intriguing investigation and courtroom drama, this engrossing novel marks a fitting finale to the career of an author widely praised as the queen of historical crime fiction.