I was going to write this in the Historical Mystery thread, but decided it was too much of a thread jack.

What do you think of Anne Perry?  I used to really enjoy her mysteries, but then over time, the fact that she's an actual murderer just became too distracting.  I normally don't care about the real life personalities, etc. of writers or artists ("Nasty men make nice things, unpleasant people think important thoughts" is one of my favorite quotations), but there was something about the way Perry writes that began to feel kind of off to me.  Am I alone in this?

Also, is she the only murderer who has taken to writing murder mysteries?  It's just such a strange circumstance.

I did not know about this!  I had to look it up.  Now it makes me curious about reading her books.

I know, I'm perverse.

Have you seen the film Heavenly Creatures about the crime?  It's one of my all time favorites. 

I tried, but could not get INTO the one book of hers that I tried to read.

I read the first book in her Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series and thought it was just "meh." I started the second but gave up. Haven't tried her other series at all. Just didn't interest me. 

At the time I tried reading those, I didn't know about her history, but to be honest I can't say it would influence me one way or another as to whether I liked or would read her books or not. Either I like the books or I don't; I don't pay much attention to various authors' private lives, political leanings, criminal or medical history, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof, or stuff like that. If the book is good, I don't care if it was written by Attila the Hun, I'll read it.

Cheryl

I really enjoy the Monk books, and I don't care at all about her history, except that it may give her more insight.  After all, we really have no idea how many people who are writing mysteries or anything else, have actually killed.

I used to read her books faithfully, but when Pitt moved to Special Branch, I wandered away. I still read them from time to time, but I don't make it a point to read every one.

I remember the hubbub about her past, but I didn't pay attention to it. As a general rule, I consider other peoples' lives to be their lives and not my business. This attitude always annoys my husband who loves celebrity gossip. To which my response is: Life is too short, why should I care?

I've read two of the Pitt series and neither were memorable for me. It seems to be a popular series but just wasn't my cup of tea :-)

I liked the historical aspect but the mystery and characters were not interesting to me.

I have a couple of the Pitt series, haven't read them yet.  I think I'll push them up a little higher on my TBR list to see what I think of them.  Interesting background for an author of mysteries.

I too enjoy her Monk series. I read a couple of the Thomas Pitt books and they seemed to be a lot the same so I stopped. I've never liked anything else I've tried to read from her. I don't care about her background though. I doesn't make a difference to me one way or another.

I have read some of her books. I don't care that she was a murderer as a teenager. I am not to judge her and do not know all the facts. I like her WWI series the best. There are 5 books in that series.

Alice

You might want to check out this old thread, which is how I found out about Anne Perry.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/forum/topic.php?t=130961