I really enjoy the Daniel Pitt series and this one did not disappoint. There are several storylines to follow, which all intersect beautifully. I like the characters and the writing. is well done. The beginnings of arson investigation were amazing. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

3.5 Stars

When Robert Adwell is accused of setting the warehouse fire that kills a rival gang member, his girlfriend Jessie Beale begs young lawyer Daniel Pitt to represent him. Daniel's good friend Miriam helps arrange an expert witness who helps Daniel's case. However, just when things appear to be resolved, the unexpected happens. Daniel and senior barrister Toby Kitteridge find themselves in the middle of a related case, representing a client they can't trust. The results of that case spur Daniel, Toby, and Miriam to take on a third related case and the professional and the personal stakes couldn't be higher.

"One Fatal Flaw" is the third book in this series, which is a spin-off of the author's popular Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. Their son, Daniel, is the main character in this series as he gains experience as a new lawyer at a prestigious law firm in 1910 England. Daniel and his friend Miriam, a scientist and daughter of the law firm's founder, put justice ahead of themselves. They are likable main characters and I enjoy seeing them work together as well as watching their friendship grow. However, when Miriam is on her own, the narrative can become bogged down in details about the state of women in science at that time. There were a lot of chapters with Miriam on her own and with her own friends at the beginning and those portions of the book moved slowly, but the first two cases out of necessity had a lot of repetition, but it didn't make for exciting reading.

The slow start to the book made this book my least favorite in the Daniel Pitt series. However, when Daniel and Miriam start working on the third case, things pick up. It was suspenseful as the reader anticipates what the outcome in court would be. The novel is a good mix of forensics, legal strategy, and courtroom drama, especially in the later chapters. Even though it takes a while for the story to play out, I enjoyed the book overall and loved the ending. This isn’t my favorite of the Daniel Pitt books, but I still look forward to reading more books in the series.

~ Christine

Will post on blog 5/25/2020

This is a great historical mystery series. This installment was actually three mysteries which were woven together. I liked the characters and the story was rich in detail.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

4.5 / 5.0 Stars

Author Anne Perry has truly outdone herself with this third addition to her Daniel Pitt mystery series. The writing is spectacular, atmospheric and historically based on good solid research. The pace is steady and the story well-plotted which resolves itself through a magnificent climax. If you're a fan of historical mysteries, leaning toward legal protocol, then this is a series not to be missed.

London, 1910 - Our young barrister, Daniel Pitt, is sought by a young woman in distress. She implores Daniel to defend Rob Adwell, her boyfriend, who is charged with murdering a fellow petty thief by way of arson. The evidence appears to be straight forward against Adwell who claims to be innocent of the murder. Pitt confers with Miriam, his bosses daugher, who's a chemist and aspiring forensic scientist. London, at that time, was not open to the idea of having women in forensics which causes great consternation for Miriam. In an effort to further Adwell's defense, Miriam introduces Daniel to Sir Barnabas Saltram, a highly respected expert in fire forensics. If anyone's testimony can save Adwell, it is Sir Barnabas'. Without giving it away, just know that several trials are interwoven into a delicious plot.

I am grateful to author Anne Perry and Ballantine Books for having provided a free uncorrected proof e-book of this 3rd series installment. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review - the words of which are mine alone.

Daniel Pitt is again approached to help defend an impossible case. The girl friend of a man accused of murder in a fiery warehouse case asks Daniel to prove that the man was killed by the fire and not by a blow to the head. Daniel asks his friend, Miriam fford Croft, an amateur forensic scientist for help and she suggests a using a famous expert on arson and her former teacher, Sir Barnabas Saltram. Miriam and Sir Barnabas had a troubled relationship that comes to light during the case plus the case itself may not be as clear cut as presented. Additional murders occur and both Daniel and Miriam find themselves in danger. Anne Perry is back in her element in London at the turn of the century.

Yhis is the first Pitt mystery I have read and I am impressed. The characters and plot are well developed and the reader gets to look at early forensic science in action. There's so much left unsaid about the characters as well as Daniel's parents, I look forward to more books and reading the books that were published previously.

This is a mystery with heart. When a distraught young woman walks into Daniel Pitt’s office pleading for help in defense of her boyfriend, who has been accused of the murder of a rival affiliate after a warehouse fire, Daniel feels immediate pity for her and despite the rather bleak look of the case, he vows to do all he can. In a case that seems pretty straightforward, Daniel is grasping at straws for a defense when his good friend Miriam Fford Croft, an amateur sleuth with a mind for science, recommends he get the opinion of forensic specialist Barnabas Saltram. Highly respected in his field, he has specialized in the argument that the type of head wounds found on the victim in this fire can be caused by the fire itself not blunt force. The defense works and thinking he had succeeded at the impossible, Daniel gives himself a congratulations and moves on. Two months later, the woeful girlfriend is charged with the murder of her boyfriend, and the cause of death and circumstances of the fire are identical. Realizing the improbability of two identical fires occurring, Daniel realizes he has made a terrible mistake. Now caught in an impossible position, Daniel has to defend the girlfriend, knowing that she is likely guilty and the testimony of the great Barnabas is likely to get her off. Daniel and his friends and associates must embark on a journey to look like they are providing a defense for their client while finding ways to discredit Barnabas’s testimony so this murderess does not go free. What they find throws twenty years worth of convictions that used the great Barnabas as their key witness, into question. Caught in a great moral conundrum, Daniel is caught between doing the right thing and meeting the ire of Barnabas and many of his powerful friends who don’t want the past to be rewritten. The strongest part of this multiple level, evolving mystery are the relationships between the characters and their willingness to sacrifice everything to see that justice is done. A mystery built with many different angles and coordinating storylines, it offers complexity without becoming confusing. This a third novel in series, but it can stand alone if you have not read the first 2. A recommended read. Thank you to Netgalley for the early copy.

I had to put it down due to extreme boredom. I've never read Anne Perry before, and I'm not likely to try again. I love British mysteries/crime dramas, especially the ones that are historical fiction, but this was awful. Daniel Pitt, the protagonist, is about as interesting as ground cinnamon. If I don't care about anything happening in a book after I've read at least 20% of it, the book is a dud. The One Fatal Flaw is that this book sucks.

One Fatal Flaw by Anne Perry proves the adage “the higher the climb, the harder the fall.” It is set in the eighteen hundreds and is primarily the story of a young, inexperienced lawyer and a woman who aspires to be a forensic scientist in an age when women had to struggle for their rights to have equal access to a higher education and to work. It is reminiscent of the David and Goliath story where a person judged to be far inferior to another succeeds in triumphing over a foe. In this case it is a renowned forensic scientist named Sir Barnabas Saltram.
The plot involves the interconnection of several crimes. Daniel and Miriam are able to team up with a couple of well known scientists to solve two crimes that are strikingly similar. Daniel is able to assist another lawyer in his firm in one trial. They succeed in winning because of Sir Barnabas’ testimony. Subsequently, they are hired for a second trial, and so begins an intense search for justice that could possibly ruin all involved with Daniel and Miriam.
The story is filled with building tension as each trial leads to a monumental battle between Daniel and Saltram. There are twists and turns as it reaches the climax. I found it captivating and so suspenseful that I could not stop reading. I also liked how Anne Perry was able to develop the characters in such a way that they seemed plausible and relatable.
I enjoyed reading this novel very much. I find myself wanting to read more of Anne Perry’s writing. I would definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy good courtroom dramas.

It’s not so much a fatal flaw that’s at the heart of this mystery, but rather one of the seven deadly sins. They say that “pride goeth before a fall” and that’s certainly true in the case of Sir Barnabas Saltram, who turns out to be the villain of this piece – without ever being one of the criminals that Daniel Pitt defends in court.

Not that he shouldn’t be.

But the case doesn’t begin with the villain. Well, it doesn’t exactly begin with the villain, and in the beginning we neither know that he’s the villain or expect him to keep showing up in the story, very much like the proverbial bad penny.

There’s more than one of those, too.

In the beginning, there’s a young woman playing on Daniel Pitt’s soft heart, begging him to defend her sweetheart who has been charged with murder. Also literally begging, as Jessie Beale expects Pitt to take the case pro bono.

Jessie did an excellent job of picking her mark, because he does, dragging the rest of his colleagues and friends along with him. And that’s where the villain comes in.

Because the murder victim died in a fire that seems to have been deliberately set, while the victim and the accused were somewhere they shouldn’t have been doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. In other words, they were trespassing while planning a crime, and death that occurs while in the commission of another crime is murder – even if that death was not intended.

The only way that Rob Adwell can get out of this frame is if an expert testifies that the blow to the back of the deceased’s head wasn’t actually a blow. And there’s one expert who can make that assertion in court and make it stick. Sir Barnabas Saltram has made his career out of making such assertions and getting juries to believe them.

He might even be right – this time.

But when a second death occurs in exactly the same manner as the first, with exactly the same players involved – except for the original victim – it begins to look like Saltram may not be as unassailable an expert as everyone once believed.

Assailing that reputation feels like tilting at a windmill. But it’s the only thing that Daniel Pitt can do to make sure that justice is done. No matter the cost.

Escape Rating A: I was absolutely enthralled by the convolutions of this story, and read it in a single day, dipping back into it whenever I had a minute. I don’t think I’m doing the twists and turns of this case nearly enough justice, and honestly I don’t think the blurb does either. It’s a roller coaster of a story, complete with twists and turns and sudden stops that feel like you’re going to be flung off the track – only for the car to set itself back on its wheels and go careening around another breathless turn.

A big part of what makes this story, and the rest of the series, work so well is its portrait of the lawyer as a young man. Daniel Pitt, the beloved son of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, the protagonists of their own long-running series (begin with The Cater Street Hangman) is only 25 as the series opened in Twenty-One Days. He’s still 25, and it’s still 1910 in this third book, after last year’s Triple Jeopardy – which would also have been a great title for this one.

(You don’t have to read his parents’ series to get into Daniel’s. Twenty-One Days was a very fresh start. I’m not sure that you have to have read the first two in order to get into this one, but if you read one and love it as much as I do, you’ll also love the others.)

But Daniel as the protagonist is a VERY young man and very early in his career. He makes a LOT of mistakes. Even when he gets his clients off. Perhaps especially when he gets his clients off, as occurs in this one. His naivete gets taken advantage of, frequently and often. But he learns from each occasion. He’s interesting to watch because he’s legally an adult while still being aware – or forced to become aware – of just how much he has to learn.

At the same time, he’s still young enough to still have that “fire in the belly” to bring about justice at any cost – even a cost to himself or to those he cares for.

Another thing that makes this series so fascinating is that it takes place in a world on the cusp of change, and has the opportunity to both show what is changing and exhibit the forces that are arrayed against that change.

At the center of many of those changes is the person and career of Daniel’s friend, the daughter of the head of his legal chambers, Miriam fford Croft. Miriam is a forensic scientist who was not allowed to sit for her degrees, nor is she permitted to practice, because she is female. At 40 to Daniel’s 25, in this story she comes to the hard realization that change, while it is coming, will not come soon enough for her. She has to find a way to contribute and participate and do the science that she loves, and make sure that it is useful, even if it cannot be under her own banner. It’s a hard lesson, one that is made all the more poignant in this case as her achievements are called into question by a man who cannot bear to be challenged by any woman, particularly her.

Speaking of Miriam, who is certainly an important character in the series as a whole and particularly in this story, all of the US covers for this series (so far) have emphasized her character, while the series is definitely Daniel’s from beginning to end. This is one of those cases where the UK covers (below) are much better and more true to the series.

However one looks at, this is a terrific series both as legal thriller/mystery and as historical fiction/mystery. It contains well-drawn and interesting characters, solves convoluted cases with both wit and heart, and does an excellent job of portraying the era in which it is set. A winner all the way around.

If Daniel’s series continues as long as his parents’ series (32 books and counting) it will make me one very happy reader!

A tender heart and a crusader for justice spirit lands young lawyer, Daniel Pitt, in a maelstrom of fire when one arson murder becomes two and an expert witness gets debunked in a spectacular way placing Daniel, and even his family and friends, in danger. It built slowly, but when it got there the tension was breathlessly taunt in this historical mystery by a favorite author.

One Fatal Flaw is the third of the Daniel Pitt series which originally spun from the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series. The story could standalone, though it is also strongly connected to what comes before both in the series and the previous series.

One Fatal Flaw is set in 1911 when England is in the last years of the Edwardian Era and seeing great advancements in the sciences, specifically forensic science. This latest Daniel Pitt tackles arson. Daniel is a young, intelligent, and hardworking, but he can lead with his heart which lands him and his friends into all sorts of trouble including this latest case about poor warehouse gang members. Daniel is a junior at Marcus fford Croft’s law firm and meant to assist Kittering, a promising trial lawyer. I have to laugh each time because the senior Kittering ends up being dragged into troublesome underdog cases by Daniel each time. Daniel does the investigating and Kittering does the trials and Miriam fford Croft and Dr. Ottershaw act as the forensics team for the firm. Love seeing them all working together on these intense cases.

The previous books focused mostly on Daniel, but this one split the narration between Daniel and Miriam. This is because Miriam was at the heart of the story. She is a woman interested in forensic science which is a career closed to her, just as she studied at university and took all the classes, but could not have the actual degree. For the sake of justice and her friendship with Daniel (which I keep thinking is slowly turning into something more- very slowly, but there), she goes to a person from her past, sacrificing pride to ask one of her old professors now a famous and brilliant forensic expert to examine the evidence to see if there is anything to get Daniel’s client off. Miriam faces her inner demons in this one, just as Daniel gets a bit more of his naïve newbie shine wiped away when he makes mistakes and learns a lesson about reading people and their motives.

The author writes her characters, their situations, the historical backdrop and social history so articulately and brilliantly. There are layers of development that immerse the reader in the people and their story, so it’s not just a historical mystery. This one does have some disjointed places and got off to a slower start, but that didn’t stop me from engaging completely with the story once it got rolling.

Like earlier books by the author, I can highly recommend this one/series to historical mystery fans.

Three cases in one! As each one is resolved, the implications mount.
A well done story. Intriguing and filled with a mix of honest people who truly want to do what is "right" and some others who are only interested in their own prestige and renown.
It comes to a rollicking conclusion which made me want to cheer!

The Book: One Fatal Flaw, by Anne Perry
A 1910 warehouse fire on the banks of the Thames has left one criminal dead and another charged with his murder. Barrister Daniel Pitt is begged by the accused's girlfriend to defend the hopeless case. Daniel –with the help of forensic scientist and friend Miriam fford Croft, finds an expert witness, whose testimony on fire damage is so utterly convincing that any jury would believe him. And that's when the real trouble begins.
I soo wanted to like this book. Three murders solved during the emerging days of forensic science- I was ready to dive in and not come out for days! Instead, I dove in and hit a shallow puddle floating on top of possibilities. Perry's book read like a newspaper account interspersed among a tome of betrayed feelings and moral meditation. It was so very frustrating to jump from solved question to solved question without knowing how the esteemed forensics got there- just why and why not he/she could. Gah! I feel cheated.

One Fatal Flaw is book number 3 in the Daniel Pitt Novel mystery series. It works well as a standalone.


I just love reading books by this Anne Perry! Her characterization is always good; the people in her books are an interesting bunch and their actions as well as the way they talk do an excellent job of making me feel as if they could be real. Another thing I really, really like about them is that they do not use the very-overused F word or use the Lord’s name in vain. Her writing is too creative to stoop that low. A character early on actually used the word balderdash! What a wonderful word! Why o why can’t other authors be more creative? While common cursing just makes characters seem crude, words like balderdash give me an entirely different impression of the character.

Anne also gives the reader a really good sense of mood through her writing and the settings are perfect. I can picture them in my mind. By the end of the book everything is neatly wrapped up even though you may not have thought when picking up the book that would ever be possible.

I am a HUGE fan of this author.

It's 1910 in London when a tearful young woman comes to junior attorney Daniel Pitt begging for his help in defending her boyfriend, Rob Adwell, against murder and arson charges. Daniel takes the job and asks his friend scientist, Miriam fford Croft for help. She enlists one of her former instructors from 20 years ago, arson expert Sir Barnabas Saltram. The jury finds Rob Adwell innocent based on Saltram's testimony. Several weeks later, Rob Adwell's dead body is found in a fire that's exactly the same as the fire Adwell was accused of starting. Were these fires started by the same person? Is it a copycat? Was it payback from a rival criminal gang because they blamed Adwell for the first fire? Did Daniel and Miriam miss something important?

This book kept me very interested and I couldn't wait to see how it would all turn out when the second trial had a second expert witness that proved Saltram's theory was wrong. Daniel and Miriam were brave to face Saltram in the third trial that would reinstate a man's good name and save his family from further disgrace. Miriam's reputation could've been ruined by the vain and pompous Sir Barnabas Saltram.

This book is the third in the Daniel Pitt series. This series takes place at a time when it was rare for a woman to study the sciences. Some countries allowed it and some did not. This is my first book by this author and I'll probably check out some of her other books.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and Ballantine Books (Random House Publishing Group). All thoughts and opinions expressed in my review are my own.

This is a most enjoyable book and I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read it prior to publication. Set in the 1900’s, junior associate Daniel Pitt is engaged to defend a young man accused of arson. Daniel’s defense results in a not guilty verdict, only to be faced with yet an identical crime a few short weeks later in which the defendant is burned to death, or is he? Further, this book is like an onion. Not only is the reader immersed in the details of this plot, but on-going are the changes being wrought in the 1900’s. Women’s rights to study in fields heretofore deemed to be men only, and the emergence of the relatively new field of forensic sciences all of which bring an underlying interest to the primary problem facing Daniel Pitt. The prose is wonderful to read and the “voice” of this era in England is very authentic. Kudos to Anne Perry for another intriguing Pitt novel.

One Fatal Flaw is the third book in Anne Perry's marvelous Daniel Pitt series. These books stand alone, so don't hesitate to dive in if you haven't read any of the previous books. I loved the prior book, Triple Jeopardy, and didn't think the series could get any better. Man, was I wrong! This story was absolutely riveting. I hope Daniel, the progeny of Ms. Perry's beloved characters Sir Thomas and Lady Charlotte Pitt, and his friend Miriam fford Croft have many more adventures to come.

Young lawyer Daniel Pitt is approached by a teary young woman whose lover has been accused of arson and murder. The medical examiner states the young man who died was bashed in the back of the skull which resulted in his death, not the fire. Daniel takes the case and discusses the death with his friend Miriam fford Croft, a scientist and the daughter of the Head of Chambers of the law firm where Daniel works. She believes a former teacher of hers, Sir Barnabas Saltram, who is now a renowned forensics arson expert - with whom she had a stormy history - can testify on behalf of the accused. Miriam approaches him, he agrees, and Daniel wins his case. However, when another young man is killed in a fire eerily like the prior one involving the same sphere of people, Daniel begins to believe his forensic expert may have been wrong...

This was a fascinating story which actually involves three murder cases. Daniel, Miriam and Sir Barnabas were all compelling characters, fleshed out with strengths and foibles. Sir Barnabas morphed from being a cold and superior forensics expert into a sinister player in the cases. Daniel is coming into his own as a lawyer, instead of being mainly known for who his parents are. His friendship with Miriam is both strong and tender; is there something else there? It was Miriam, however, who shone the brightest here. I loved learning more about her past, her relationships with her father and Dr. Ottershaw (her mentor) and her struggle to be a scientist in a time when women were thought to being incapable of handling such responsibilities. There is another powerful character here not previously mentioned but which everything centers around: fire. Ms. Perry perfectly showed the incredible power of fire and taps into our primitive fear of same. I'm hoping we won't be kept waiting long for Daniel's next case and adventure!

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This is a good read. Anne Perry delivers every time. Her characters are people you want to be friends with or relatives you wish you had. I like watching the families evolve as she lets the characters age and mature. In this particular story Daniel Pitt a beginning lawyer accepts a case which turns terribly wrong and he has to figure out how to both win the case and keep his principles. To do this he must elicit aid from several friends and his parents. The story moves well, the ending is unpredictable and exciting. When it is over you want more. I will read more Anne Perry as fast as she can write them.

Earlier this week the third book in Anne Perry's Daniel Pitt series came out. I hadn't read the first two books of the series, but the cover of One Fatal Flaw really got my attention.

One Fatal Flaw started out kind of slow but I felt it had a lot of potential. It reminded me a bit of the British television show Bramwell. The young lawyer Daniel Pitt finds himself taking on an arson/murder case in which a known ruffian is accused. The accused has been known to engage in low level crime and is a rival of the deceased. The man's girlfriend seeks Daniel's help even though they cannot pay. It seems Daniel has a soft spot for the underdog and even if he is guilty he still deserves a defense. That is how the law and justice work.
However, the mystery of the warehouse fire and subsequent death isn't really the focus of the book. Instead, we are introduced to the true focus of the plot in the course of the trial. Sir Barnabas Saltram is the foremost expert on fire and forensic science, which in 1910 is still in its infancy. The daughter of Daniel's boss, a woman he considers a friend and who has helped him before, happens to be acquainted with Sir Barnabas and offers an introduction. When Sir Barnabas testifies, his word is taken law and the jury quickly acquits Robert Adwell.

But when a few months later there is another dock fire resulting in a death, it is Robert Adwell who is dead and his girlfriend is accused. The defense worked before so it should work again. But this time Daniel knows the girlfriend is guilty. What is he going to do?

There is little about the investigation as this case is just the catalyst for Miriam and Daniel to discredit Sir Barnabas. Miriam has a history with the man, an unpleasant one, and in part, it feels like personal revenge, which I don't particularly like in my protagonists of mystery novels.

So the plotted wasn't all that interesting to me. I would have preferred the story to stay focused on the murder and arson cases, but instead, the plot became about knocking a man off his high horse. That would have been fine if it had remained about the scientific basis of his findings but instead it devolved into a slugfest and slander.

On top of a plot that didn't interest me, I didn't connect with the characters. They seemed to have little personality. I suppose there is suppose to be a love interest between Daniel and Miriam, but it lacked emotion. Is it just the social norms of the early 1900s that leads to an almost a coldness between the two? Yes, they both think well of the other, respect each other. But more to it than friendship? I didn't feel it. Perhaps I would have felt more of a connection with the characters if I had followed the series from the beginning.

It is always disappointing when a book doesn't live up to expectations. I feel that it is more a matter of personal preference than the actual book. I'm sure many people will enjoy it.

The review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2020/04/one-fatal-flaw-by-anne-perry-review.html

Well written and entertaining historical mystery. Good plot with many twists and turns. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.