Thomas Pitt (character)

Thomas Pitt is the protagonist in a series of detective novels by Anne Perry in the first of which he meets his future wife, Charlotte Ellison. They are both involved in the investigation and solving of cases in the series.

Pitt is from a working-class background in Victorian London. His father was a gamekeeper on a landed estate and Pitt was educated alongside the son of the house. He was prompted to enter the police force after his father was wrongly accused of poaching game and transported to Australia.

At the beginning of the series, Pitt is a police inspector, but was promoted to superintendent. Later he is removed from his job as a result of investigating the "wrong people", i.e. those with sufficient influence and power, and joins the Special Branch, in which he becomes an inspector. Later he is promoted to commander as Head of Special Branch.

His wife, Charlotte (née Ellison), is from an upper-class family. Her sister Emily's first husband was a viscount and Emily's 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 relies on her maid, Gracie, to take care for her children, Jemima and Daniel, when she is investigating a mystery. Charlotte's well-intentioned interference in her husband's investigations gives Pitt access to information which enables him to solve the case. Vespasia 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 as Pitt and Keeley Hawes as Charlotte and featured Hannah Spearritt in her acting debut.