Carlisle, an avid and politically astute social reformer, is making converts to his cause of reforming the workhouses by dragooning his social acquaintances into visiting the slums and rookeries. All were apparently natural deaths, so Thomas isn't even quite sure for much of the book whether any serious crime actually has been committed. The recently buried keep turning up out of their coffins - sitting in hansom cabs, or in church pews, or leaning against their own tombstones. Sometimes the latter is better written and more interesting than the former, but in this case the mystery is interesting and also funny in an oddball way. All of them seem to be a mix of police procedural and social commentary, in which Pitt has to delve into the depths of London's underclass while Charlotte wades through the unpleasantnesses of Society's drawing rooms. This is the fourth novel in the Charlotte and Inspector Thomas Pitt series of high Victorian mysteries, though I've read several others out of order.
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