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.
He was prompted to enter the police force after his father was wrongly accused of poaching game and transported to Australia.
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.
Charlotte's well-intentioned interference in her husband's investigations gives Pitt access to information which enables him to solve the case.
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.