Thomas Pitt (fictional character)

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Thomas Pitt is the protagonist in a series of detective novels by Anne Perry.

The stories are set in Victorian London. Pitt is from a working class background: his father was a gamekeeper on a landed estate and Pitt was permitted to share the lessons with the son of the house. He was prompted to enter the police force after his father was wrongly accused of poaching game and was transported to Australia.

At the beginning of the series, Pitt is a Police Inspector. Later he is removed from his job as a result of investigating the "wrong people" i.e. those with sufficient influence and power.

His wife, Charlotte (née Ellison), is from an upper middle class family. Her sister Emily's first husband was an earl and her second husband is a rising politician. Charlotte frequently uses Emily's connections to the landed gentry and aristocracy to assist Pitt in his investigations. Charlotte also relies on her maid of all work, Gracie, to care for her two children, Jemima and Daniel, when she is investigating a mystery. Charlotte's well-intentioned interference in his investigations gives Pitt access to information which often enables the couple to solve the case together.

Vespacia Cumming-Gould, the elderly aunt of Emily's first husband, becomes a friend to both Emily and Charlotte and eases their way into society.

The first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was adapted for TV in 1998; it starred Eoin McCarthy and Keeley Hawes and featured Hannah Spearritt in her acting debut.