Buckingham Palace Gardens: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel

Description

The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to Buckingham Palace to discuss a fantastic idea: the construction of a six-thousand-mile railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa. But, alas, the prince’s gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute turns up in a linen closet among the queen’s monogrammed sheets.

With great haste, Thomas Pitt, brilliant mainstay of Special Services, is summoned to resolve the crisis. The Pitts’ cockney maid, Gracie, is also recruited to pose as a palace servant and listen in on the guests’ conversations. If Pitt and Gracie fail to find out who brutally murdered the young woman, Pitt’s career will be over, and the scandal may just cause the monarchy to fall.

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Customer Reviews

Quite good
Anne Perry is a prolific writer of historical and Victorian-era mysteries, most of which feature either Thomas and Charlotte Pitt or William Monk. BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS is her 25th novel with the Pitts. The only difference here is that Thomas Pitt does not have the assistance of his wife, Charlotte. Instead, he must call upon his own cockney servant, Gracie Phipps, to go undercover as a member of the Buckingham Palace household staff in order to assist him in uncovering the guilty party or parties.

In BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS, Perry has created a Sherlock Holmes-like "locked door" mystery. The body of a prostitute has been found, nude and butchered, in the linen closet. This has all the markings of a series of gruesome murders that occurred a few years prior in the Whitechapel area of London. What makes this case particularly difficult for Inspector Thomas Pitt is the fact that no one can come and go easily from Buckingham Palace without being seen by the guards. Therefore, Pitt has to interview all the people who were inside Buckingham Palace the night of the murder.

The list of suspects includes four proper couples as well as all of the household and personal servants. The Queen is traveling abroad, so the Prince and Princess of Wales are left to entertain the couples at Buckingham Palace. The purpose of their visit is for the four gentlemen, led by the elder Cahoon Dunkeld, to get the Prince's support on a proposed railway that would extend from London into the heart of Africa; it would open up commerce in a major way and make Great Britain the true power in Europe. Meanwhile, both the personal servants of each of the guests and those employed in the Palace are infiltrated by Gracie.

The head of the Buckingham Palace servant staff is Mr. Tyndale, the only person on the inside aware that the new housekeeper, Sophie, is actually a plant working for Pitt and the Special Services Branch. The fact that the Prince of Wales and his four gentlemen guests had a private party following a meeting that included local street prostitutes makes things even more difficult for Pitt as he is expected to sift through clues in a discretionary and expedient manner.

What transpires is quite reminiscent of the British "Upstairs, Downstairs" class dramas that have been seen in many prior novels of this period as well as in films like Gosford Park. While Perry's writing is always engaging, I found it far more interesting to read the passages involving the "downstairs" group of servants --- written in the same cockney voice as Gracie Phipps herself. The "upstairs" suspects, the well-to-do guests of the Prince of Wales, come across as tiresome and boorish after lengthy dialogues, and it was difficult for me to decide who to hang the murder rap on since they were all very unlikable and morally questionable characters.

The story and investigation take a significant turn when the wife of one of the gentlemen turns up dead in the same manner as the butchered prostitute. Clues point to the husband of the victim, who is also the daughter of elder gentlemen Cahoon Dunkeld. Perry produces several clues and red herrings, including a mysterious box of books delivered to Dunkeld the night of the first murder, blood found in bottles of Port, broken pieces of china from an expensive Limoges dish and a set of the bloody bed sheets that came from the absent Queen's bedroom. Pitt is also made aware that a woman had been murdered in similar fashion a few years prior during a scouting trip to Africa in which one of the gentlemen was present.

Though I found the upper class guests and the Prince of Wales to be fairly unlikable characters, the constant secrecy and misdirection this tale poses nevertheless kept me guessing until the end. I particularly enjoyed the fact that one of the characters was reading THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde, a tale of a man seeking to change his own destiny by eternally preserving his youth. In similar ways, the gentlemen are proposing to alter their own --- and Great Britain's --- destiny by building an African railway and are tempting fate. The proposal of this grand undertaking is best described by another character, developer Watson Forbes, who states: "Such a railway would cut through the heart of a country and vandalize the soul of it."

It is safe to say that several of the souls in BUCKINGHAM PALACE GARDENS are permanently vandalized by a greed that leads them to commit unthinkable acts.

2010-06-09 (New York, New York) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Perry revitalizes the historical mystery
Anne Perry researches the Victorian era thoroughly so her stories are historically accurate. The real bonus in this mystery is the plot that encircles the Prince of Wales. It's a cliff hanger. Perry also introduces a new character, Gracie into the series. Gracie infiltrates the servants' staff of the Prince and is a source of vital information for special investigator Thomas Pitt. Perry revitalizes the historical mystery.

2010-05-14 | ippl.info (Darien, IL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Buckingham Palace Gardens
Excellent book, follows all of Anne Perry's Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries. Anne Perry is the master of Victorian mysteries.

2010-04-30 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Same old stuff
I think Perry is at the end of the line with the Pitt series. Not much original or unpredictable in this one. Same themes as in all her previous Pitt books, and too much repeated internal contemplation by the characters that doesn't move the plot line forward. Time for her (or us) to move on.

2010-02-04 | I'd rather be reading... (Chicago) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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Murderers shouldn't profit from their own murder fantasies
Regardless of quality, the thought of this convicted murderer profiting from her own murder fantasies is repugnant. I don't want to hear about her 'paying her debt to society' or some such, either. That may be the case, but that doesn't make it ok to profit from a dark passenger that has actually been allowed to gruesomely kill someone with a brick in a sock. This woman isn't just creative, she's sick. I wouldn't even care if she was famous for ANYTHING else. I wouldn't approve of Timothy McVeigh's book of fiction about a homegrown terrorist with a heart of gold, either.

2010-02-03 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Execution Dock: A William Monk Novel

Description

On the bustling docks along the River Thames, Great Britain’s merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucrative trade. The dreaded kingpin of this dark realm is Jericho Phillips, who seems far beyond the reach of the law. But when thirteen-year-old Fig is found with his throat cut, Commander William Monk of the River Police swears that Phillips will hang for this abomination. Monk’s wife, Hester, draws a highly unusual guerrilla force to her husband’s cause—a canny ratcatcher, a retired brothel keeper, a fearless street urchin, and a rebellious society lady. To one as criminally minded as Phillips, these folks are mere mosquitoes, to be sure. But as he will soon discover, some mosquitoes can have a deadly sting.

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Customer Reviews

I'm already looking forward to his next mystery!
Anne Perry brings back one of her serial investigators, Commander William Monk, in his 16th adventure. We last read about Monk three years ago in DARK ASSASSIN. This time out, Monk has taken over as Commander of the River Police with the responsibility of patrolling the Thames River. He inherited this position as a result of the untimely death of his predecessor and friend, Commander Durban.

The first thing Monk must attend to is the case that Durban was investigating when he died --- the murder of a 13-year-old boy known only as Fig, allegedly killed at the hands of the dreaded kingpin of the docks, Jericho Phillips. Phillips is known to run a floating brothel along the Thames River whereby young boys are abducted and forced to endure unspeakable acts as sex slaves, often times ending in their ultimate disappearance and death. Monk vows to bring Phillips to justice and see him hang in an effort to clean up the area and also avenge the late Commander Durban.

The area known as Execution Dock refers to the section of docks located on the Thames in the Wapping area of London, England. It was used for more than 400 years (as late as 1830) to hang pirates, smugglers and mutineers who had been sentenced to death by the Admiralty courts. It is ironic that Phillips, a pirate in his own right, is sought for hanging for alleged sins committed in this very location. However, he is a wily and nefarious character who boasts several important and well-to-do members of London society as his clients, so sentencing him to hanging may not be as easy as it would seem.

Fairly early in the novel, Phillips is apprehended and put on trial for the murder of young Fig. It appears to be an open and shut case that no reasonable jury would ever fail to convict on. However, Monk will soon find out that it is not as easy as he thought and quickly realizes why his late predecessor died in vain trying to silence his "white whale." EXECUTION DOCK is unlike a typical William Monk mystery, as he turns out to be one of many central characters in the story. This book belongs just as much to his wife, Hester, a nurse and primary witness for the prosecution. Hester is well-respected and known to have served proudly under the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. With her testimony and that of other character witnesses, there is no way Phillips will not be convicted.

Standing in defense of Phillips is Oliver Rathbone, a friend and sometime collaborator of Monk's. This makes for an uneasy situation as former colleagues are on opposite sides in the case. Equally unsettling is the fact that at one time Hester had been in a relationship with Rathbone prior to her marriage to William. Rathbone does no more than any good defense attorney would be expected to do as he fairly and justly represents his client. However, the line of questioning soon takes a turn as Rathbone begins to paint a picture of doubt around the proof of Phillips's alleged crime. At the same time, Rathbone portrays former Commander Durban as being both obsessive and possibly in league with Phillips. With Durban not alive to defend himself, the defense rests having raised enough doubt that the jury comes back with a startling verdict of not guilty.

With the rule of double jeopardy in effect, Monk realizes that he will be unable to re-try Phillips for Fig's murder. He will have to find evidence of other killings or criminal acts to tie Phillips to in order to present an air-tight case. This is not made easy as the influential and powerful forces that paid for Phillips's initial defense do not want to see him convicted ever and will go to any ends to accomplish this. Monk has the dual challenge of seeking to clear the good name of his late predecessor, who had his reputation unreasonably besmirched during the Phillips trial.

As Monk and his team work tirelessly to hunt down proof by which they can nail Phillips, Hester is conducting her own investigation into Durban's past to see if there was any merit to the allegations that his relationship with Phillips was anything less than it appeared to be. What Hester uncovers will show Durban in a slightly different light than the persona he had presented during his time as River Commander --- but is this enough to totally disregard his case and pursuit of Phillips? Other characters are recruited to assist in the investigations --- particularly a young boy from the docks named Scuff and a slightly dim-witted assistant to Hester, Claudine Burroughs. Additionally, Rathbone has been having continued feelings of guilt for helping to acquit a defendant he himself knew to be guilty. He conducts a similar background check of the facts he obtained surrounding the identity of the party that paid for the defense of Phillips --- and is startled by what he uncovers.

Anne Perry, in her usual indomitable style, deftly weaves all of the storylines and investigations together and paints a picture of corruption that runs so high and deep that it may present insurmountable odds against justice ever being realized in the case of the evil Jericho Phillips. As always, her writing easily transports you into Victorian London and takes you to the often unglamorous areas of this volatile period. Any time spent with William Monk, as well as his associates and family, is time well spent. I very much look forward to his next mystery!

2010-06-09 (New York, New York) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Execution Dock
I loved this book as I do all the William Monk Novels. I have read them all. Anne Perry's characters in the Monk and also Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels are hard to put down to go to bed, I want to read just one more chapter. I always look forward to the next book. The characters are so human even though they lived in another time they are like friends. I was introduced to the Anne Perry books by my sister and brother-in-law and have passed the pashion on to my friend. We are all hooked.

2010-05-10 (Kennesaw, GA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Another Good, not Great Monk Mystery
Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries featuring William Monk and his crusading wife Hester are always good, but never great. Maybe it is the fact that the sensibility of the novels is so in character with the time period that it often feels somewhat stilted to a modern reader, unlike other historical fiction. The characters and their supposed passions never seem quite real and never really touch me. Perry also tends to wrap things up very quickly, neatly and unrealistically at the end of her books. But the historical detail is excellent and enlightening, the mysteries are always compelling, and the character of Monk, especially, is worth coming back to - even though he has his memory back. However, I wouldn't cry if she stopped the series now.

2010-05-03 (Monterey, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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great reading, as usual!
eagerly awaited and didn"t disappoint! she writes so well and her descriptions are so vivid. Good plot and allows their closest friends to let them down. Hated to read the last page and put it down. This is definitely up to her standards. She does not yet seem bored with her characters and is not just churning out another one, yet--as so many eventually do. Cannot wait for the next.

2010-04-10 | viv (cape breton island, NS,CAN) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Daring Captures, Courtroom Drama, Undercover Suspense, and Ethical Questions
"If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked," -- Deuteronomy 25:1

Execution Dock isn't for those with sensitive reactions to inhumane activities, focusing as it does on Jericho Phillips's illegal activities that exploit children. If this subject matter is upsetting to you, skip this book.

If you can get past that point, the book's opening features an exceptional river chase led by the redoubtable Commander William Monk of the River Police, following up on the case developed by his predecessor, the highly regarded Commander Durban. A legal conflict ensues with some unexpected opposition for Monk and his wife, Hester. With the stakes as high as anyone can imagine, it becomes critical to shut down the unspeakable. All the stops are pulled out as each character displays unusual courage and steadfastness to see that justice is done. Before the story is over you'll get a glimpse of a side of Victorian society that you probably haven't read about before.

After the excitement of the opening chase, the legal conflict that followed seemed slow and frustrating by comparison. Keep going if you have that reaction. The book's second half picks up steam again and is much more satisfying as a detection story than the first half is.

The story places the ongoing characters in the series in new lights and puts new strains on their relationships. If you aren't familiar with the earlier books in the series, you may not enjoy this book as much as I did. It might be more like a 3 or 3 1/2 star novel for you.

The book also describes some moral dilemmas, the sort that will cause you to think about what you would have done in similar circumstances. A book club with members who enjoy this series would do well to use this book for a discussion.

At the end of this book, you'll be asking yourself what justice requires. That's a fine way to end a novel that ostensibly is only about crime and punishment.

2010-03-14 | Jesus Makes Me a Practical Optimist (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 96,000 Helpful Votes Globally) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Sheen on the Silk: A Novel

Product Details

• Circumstances: New
• Notes: BUY WITH Coolness, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and advice to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• ISBN13: 9780345500656

Description

New York Times bestselling novelist Anne Perry, the undisputed Queen of Victorian mysteries and the author of an acclaimed series set during World War I, now broadens her canvas with her first major stand-alone book—an epic historical novel set in thirteenth-century Constantinople, where a woman must live a lie in her quest to uncover the truth.

    Arriving in the ancient Byzantine city in the year 1273, Anna Zarides has only one mission: to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill Bessarion, a nobleman.
Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, using her skills as a physician to manoeuver close to the key players involved in her brother’s fate. With her medical practice thriving, Anna crosses paths with Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Giuiliano Dandolo, a ship’s captain conflicted not only by his mixed Venetian-Byzantine heritage but by his growing feelings for Anastasius.

Trying to clear her brother’s name, Anna learns more about Justinian’s life and reputation—including his peculiar ties to Bessarion’s beautiful widow and his possible role in a plot to overthrow the emperor. This leaves Anna with more questions than answer, and time is running out. For an even greater threat lies on the horizon: Another Crusade to capture the Holy Land is brewing, and leaders in Rome and Venice have set their sights on Constantinople for what is sure to be a brutal invasion. Anna’s discoveries draw her inextricably closer to the dangers of the emperor’s treacherous court—where it seems that no one is exactly who he or she appears to be.

    Richly detailed and finely wrought, The Sheen on the Silk is a bold and brilliant work that affirms Anne Perry’s talent as a master storyteller.

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Anne Perry on The Sheen on the Silk

I wanted to try something different and challenging, and yet still within the categories of historical fiction, and mystery. I felt it must be set in a place and time which gripped my imagination, was filled with both physical and emotional conflict, yet preferably not one already exhaustively explored. My agent suggested Byzantium: beautiful, complex, sophisticated, and in the 13th century, embattled on all sides. The Latin crusaders had already burned the city, stolen its treasures and murdered or exiled its people in 1204. They returned from exile only in 1262. To the north and east was Russia and the hordes of the Great Khan, to the south the rising power of Islam.

In the midst of this, the thousand-year-old Byzantine Empire is trying to rebuild its fire-scarred city and its ruined trade and economy. Before the sack by the crusaders, it was the end of the Silk Road from the east, of the spice trade, the crossroads of Europe and Asia, ancient, subtle and rich. When my novel opens, the Empire is on the brink of a final ruin from which it will never rise. If it does not renounce its Orthodox Christian faith and submit to the Pope in Rome, the crusade being planned will decimate it forever.

Into this cauldron of emotions comes Anna Zarides, a young woman physician whose twin brother has been accused of murdering the nobleman who was leading the resistance against Rome, and the abandonment of the Orthodox faith. Anna cannot believe he is guilty, and disguises herself as a eunuch, so she can move freely in society, treating both men and women, in order to prove his innocence. She is a brilliant doctor, practicing Christian medicine openly, and Arabic and Jewish medicine discreetly. (My research for this was fascinating!) She must not be caught either with the far more effective alien medicine, or in the deceit of pretending to be a man when she is not--the punishment for either would be very serious. She must remain safe while keeping her medical integrity, and weave her way through political and religious intrigue to solve a murder and expose a terrible plot, all as a city faces its final invasion and disaster.

Other characters include a Roman bishop, subtle and devious, desperate to find a passion in life; a Byzantine eunuch bishop who confuses faith in God with loss of power; a half Venetian, half Byzantine sailor/adventurer seeking his own identity torn between nations at war with each other (with whom Anna falls in love); and a woman who escaped the ruin of the city in 1204, as a tiny child, and lives to revenge the family she saw murdered and the city she loved and identified with. The rape of Byzantium was like a defilement of herself that she can never forgive.

I hope I have caught the passion and the conflict of faith and survival, as well as some of the reality of the search we all make for what truth to believe in, and what costs we must pay to find our own spiritual honor. --Anne Perry

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Customer Reviews

Dull book, dull characters
The most amazing thing about this book is that I finished it. A good editor could have taken 100-150 pages out of this too long book of 515 pages. I kept reading in desperation, thinking that this book must get better. Not only did it not get better, the ending was an even bigger disappointment. I enjoy Perry's series on the Pitt and Monk characters and kept hoping for the best. Boy, was I disappointed. You know a book is in trouble when the main character doesn't come alive and isn't believable. That was the first of many misses the author had. I recommend that you give this book a pass and read someting more enjoyable.

2010-07-05 | book nerd (Willits CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Gave it a hundred pages...
...but since I wasn't hooked, despite desperately wanting to be, I gave up. I haven't read any Anne Perry, but I am a big fan of off-the-beaten-path historical novels, so my expectations were high. The writing is rich; the world is evocative; but I was left utterly cold by the characters and what they were doing. When you don't want to know what happens next, despite an incredible amount of work on the author's part to create a time and place and a story, then the whole thing falls flat. I feel a bit badly giving this book one star, but I must be honest and say the last time I put it down I didn't care if I ever picked it up again, which is telling.

2010-06-23 | I Can Has Cheezburger? (Los Angeles, California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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`Trust your enemies, if you know who they are.'
This novel opens in 1273, almost seventy years after the sacking of Constantinople during the fourth crusade. The war-ravaged Byzantine Empire is still living with the consequences of the fourth crusade, and is again under threat. In order to avoid another sacking of Constantinople, the Emperor Michael Palaeologus is trying to unite the Greek (Orthodox) and Latin (Catholic) Churches. This is the brief historical background to the novel, and sets the scene for the intrigue and unrest that we see mainly through the eyes of the fictional eyes of Anna Zarides.

Anna Zarides, disguised as a eunuch named Anastasius, is a skilled physician learned in Jewish and Muslim medicine. Anna has travelled to Constantinople to discover why her twin brother Justinian has been implicated in the murder of Bessarion. Disguised as Anastasius, Anna has access to people and to knowledge that would be unavailable to her as a woman: eunuchs have their own power and invisibility in Constantinople.

`The character of eunuchs was like the sheen on the silk - fluid, unpredictable. A third gender, male and female yet neither.'

This is a sprawling and at times convoluted story as befits the period in which it is set and the events it depicts. Intrigue, politics and religion each have a role and some knowledge of the history helps in order to understand the tensions and power struggles between various groups.

I enjoyed this novel, but more because of the setting than because of Anna's quest for the truth of her brother's involvement in Bessarion's murder. I found the fictional component interesting rather than compelling, but the setting was magnificent.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

2010-06-19 | Expect the Unexpected (ACT, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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An Evening in Byzantium???
Th amount of work it takes to produce a historical novel of this detail is mind boggling. This is what it takes to make the concept work and this is indeed what Anne Perry accomplished. I love the fact that she chose a setting that is romantic and exotic. We have all loved the Gothic novels set in the English countryside but will now welcome a different place to escape to. The setting provides a whole new arena for character development and a whole new set of tools for plot development. This alone will keep the reader in the novel. Just in time for a good beach read but will equally suit that cozy time in front of the fire. When you can't afford a plane ticket, this is the next best thing!

2010-06-18 | DrivingMs.Haflinger (West Virginia) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Fascinating, Pleasurable Read
What a fascinating, brilliant new story from Anne Perry! I have read all her Victorian mysteries, and in recent years I hoped she would try new things--and she did! She has succeeded in reinventing herself.

This story is set in the Byzantine Empire when the Europeans to the north were launching their Crusades - an intricate, shocking, gorgeous world that I knew nothing about. The characters were fascinating too. By the end of the book, all had grown. Her character development was especially superb because all of the diverse characters grew in tender, human, and often surprising ways - some got weaker, some got stronger, but all were plausible and complex. The plot moved me along as a reader, and the climax was exciting and surprising. I felt this was excellent writing that supported the reader's pleasure wonderfully. Now I am hoping for more from her!

2010-06-12 (Minnesota) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Long Spoon Lane: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel

Description

Anne Perry’s bestselling Victorian novels offer readers an elixir as addictively rich as Devonshire cream or English ale–enticing millions into a literary world almost as real as the original. While flower sellers, costermongers, shopkeepers, and hansom drivers ply their trades, the London police watch over all. Or so people believe. . . .

Early one morning, Thomas Pitt, dauntless mainstay of the Special Branch, is summoned to Long Spoon Lane, where anarchists are plotting an attack. Bombs explode, destroying the homes of many poor people. After a chase, two of the culprits are captured and the leader is shot . . . but by whom?

As Pitt delves into the case, he finds that there is more to the terrorism than the destructive gestures of misguided idealists. The police are running a lucrative protection racket, and clues suggest that Inspector Wetron of Bow Street is the mastermind. As the shadowy leader of the Inner Circle, Wetron is using his influence with the press to whip up fears of more attacks–and to rush a bill through Parliament that would severely curtail civil liberties. This would make him the most powerful man in the country.

To defeat Wetron, Pitt finds that he must run in harness with his old enemy, Sir Charles Voisey, and the unlikely allies are joined by Pitt’s clever wife, Charlotte, and her great aunt, Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould. Can they prevail? As they strive to prevent future destruction, nothing less than the fate of the British Empire hangs in precarious balance.

From the first sentence to the last, Long Spoon Lane is a miracle of suspense, of plot and counterplot, bluff and counterbluff, in a take-no-prisoners battle between good and evil. It is possibly the very best of all the wonderful Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

Very repetative
Anne Perry has an exceptional talent for bringing the atmosphere of the bygone days to life.Her characters are vivid and memorable. The trouble is that sometimes her plots leave a lot to be desired, and her penchant for details can suffocate the story.
This novel suffers from that problem. The trials and tribulations with the Inner Circle are becoming very repetative, and occasional splash of Victorian melodrama cheapens the integrity of the book. There are too many faces that turn purple and blotchy red or white and ashen gray, and far too many sighs and exclamations. Writing three or four books a year, unfortunately affects the quality.

2009-07-01 (Minneapolis, Mn United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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"Most [policemen] are honorable, but corruption begets corruption."
I've been annoyed for some time -- for the past dozen volumes in this generally first-rate series set in London of the 1880s and `90s -- that the author had served her readers so poorly by inventing the Inner Circle, a secret society trying to take control of Great Britain. The conspiracy became a deus ex machina upon which Perry could blame anything, which removed the necessity of proper plot construction, and Pitt stopped being a cop and became a secret agent, a sort of ur-Bond, in the employ of Special Branch. Sir Charles Voisey, the head of the Inner Circle, especially, was presented as the personification of melodramatic evil -- Snidely Whiplash with a nice house, servants, and a carriage. Pitt (and his boss, Narraway) orchestrated Voisey's fall from power, in any case, and in this somewhat wild-eyed volume, Voisey's rival, Superintendent Wetron, spins his own conspiracy: A group of anarchists (read "terrorists") are accused (justly) of blowing up houses and (unjustly) callously killing civilians. Wetron's motive is to ensure passage of an Act of Parliament giving the police greatly increased firepower, as well as enormous stop-and-search powers and the authority to enter private homes and ask any questions they like. "Snatched from the headlines," as they say. (I imagine Perry is no fan of the present U.S. neocon administration.) The immediate result is to push Pitt and Voisey into a grudging and very suspicious partnership in order to defeat the bill, each for his own reasons. That part of the story is quite well done in its depiction of the very opposite characters of the two men -- and Perry makes up for the unbelievability of much of the rest of the plot by rather decisively killing off the entire Inner Circle conspiracy at the end. Ya-hoo!

2008-05-04 (Gonzales, Louisiana) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Bugged by Tellman
This intricate novel with its bombings and Parliamentary debates about increased police power have obvious echoes of our own time. (Patriot Act, anyone?). I liked the theme of Pitt's having to cooperate with archenemy Voisey, but Thomas comes perilously close to James Bond territory in his miraculous escape. What bothered me was Tellman. In the previous book he was Inspector; now he is Sergeant. Did Wetron bust him or is this just sloppy editing? Inquiring minds want to know. And I couldn't believe Wetron trusted him as far as he did Still, an absorbing read.

2007-05-04 | mystery gal (Atlanta, GA United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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Not my favorite Anne Perry book
I usually love Anne Perry Books. I eat them up as she turns them out no matter which series is published, but I couldn't wait to finish this one. It just wasn't interesting. The usual historical data was prevelant, but the mystery itself left something to be desired. Kind of boring and I was glad to be finished so that I could move on to the next book.

2007-01-10 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Good...but what's with the editing?
Having caught a second wind, Perry continues what she started in Seven Dials by taking familiar characters to new and exciting places (psychologically speaking.) She's really revitalized the series. However, I wonder if she's switched editors with this one, and for the worse. I noticed a large number of typos and either clunky or downright erroneous wordings that never existed in the previous Pitt novels. It was distracting enough for me to knock one star off my review.

2006-08-18 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 3

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Death of a Stranger

Description

Few authors have written more mesmerizingly about Victorian London than Anne Perry. Readers enter her world with exquisite anticipation, and experience a rich variety of characters and class: aristocrats living in luxury, flower sellers on street corners, ladies of the evening seeking customers on gaslit streets, gentlemen in hansom cabs en route to erotic diversions unknown in their Mayfair mansions. Now Perry gives her myriad fans the book they’ve been waiting for—the novel in which William Monk breaks through the wall of amnesia and discovers at last who he once was.

DEATH OF A STRANGER

For the prostitutes of Leather Lane, nurse Hester Monk’s clinic is a lifeline, providing medicine, food, and a modicum of peace—especially welcome since lately their ailments have escalated from bruises and fevers to broken bones and knife wounds. At the moment, however, the mysterious death of railway magnate Nolan Baltimore in a sleazy neighborhood brothel overshadows all else. Whether he fell or was pushed, the shocking question in everyone’s mind is: What was such a pillar of respectability doing in a seedy place of sin?

Meanwhile, brilliant private investigator William Monk acquires a new client, a mysterious beauty who asks him to ascertain beyond a shadow of a doubt whether or not her fiancé, an executive in Nolan Baltimore’s thriving railway firm, has become enmeshed in fraudulent practices that could ruin him.

As Hester ventures into violent streets to learn who is responsible for the brutal abuse of her patients, Monk embarks upon a journey into the English countryside, where the last rails are being laid for a new line. But the sight of tracks stretching into the distance revives memories once stripped from his consciousness by amnesia—as a past almost impossible to bear returns, eerily paralleling a fresh tragedy that has already begun its inexorable unfolding.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Private enquiry agent William Monk is hired to investigate a potential case of fraud in the construction of a new railway line. His client is the fiancée of a man she fears is embroiled in the scheme, and Monk's investigation causes a strange sense of déjà vu--a former policeman afflicted with a case of amnesia concerning his prior life, Monk finds both the case and its milieu unsettlingly familiar. His case is somehow connected to the death of a railway magnate in a sleazy area of London where Monk's wife Hester, a nurse, operates a shelter for abused prostitutes. The women have been doubly victimized by an extortion scheme in which the dead man, who turns out to have been Monk's employer during his "lost" years, may have been involved. More than an ingenious way to fill in Monk's backstory, Anne Perry's newest mystery featuring the enigmatic investigator deepens the reader's understanding of an unusual and compelling protagonist and brings Victorian-era England vividly to life. --Jane Adams

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Customer Reviews

Murderers shouldn't profit from their own murder fantasies
Regardless of quality, the thought of this convicted murderer profiting from her own murder fantasies is repugnant. I don't want to hear about her 'paying her debt to society' or some such, either. That may be the case, but that doesn't make it ok to profit from a dark passenger that has actually been allowed to gruesomely kill someone with a brick in a sock. This woman isn't just creative, she's sick. I wouldn't even care if she was famous for ANYTHING else. I wouldn't approve of Timothy McVeigh's book of fiction about a homegrown terrorist with a heart of gold, either.

2010-02-03 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 1

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Satisfied Reader
Give me a Anne Perry mystery with Monk and Hester anytime and I will drop what I'm reading to take up a great read!
Am pleased with the used books that I get through Amazon.

2009-06-25 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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2 1/2 Stars -- Too Slow-Moving For My Taste!
Death of A Stranger is the first book I've read by Anne Perry. It involves the death of a railway magnate in a sleazy brothel, which has shocked high society in Victorian London. In addition, the plot involves private investigator William Monk's acquisiton of a mysterious new client who asks him to determine whether her new fiance, a railway-firm executive, has become involved in fraudulent practices. Perry does a good job in describing the detail and mood of Victorian London and in creating interesting characters; particularly in regards to evolving her two main characters, William Monk and his wife, Heather. If mood and character development are what drive your interest in a mystery than Death Of A Stranger is right up your alley. However, while these qualities are important to me as well, I require a much faster-paced plot and some surprising twists and turns, which, unfortunately this book seriously lacks. As such, I at times found it to be tedious and somewhat boring, and oftentimes considered it to be very slow-moving. Death Of A Stranger is not a bad book, it's just not one I'd recommend highly to you.

2008-01-29 (New Jersey, USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 2

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Great Historical Color within an Enigmatic, Slow-Moving Plot
I recently read The Shifting Tide and was most impressed with the book. Not having read other books in the William Monk series, I decided to work backward to see what I had missed. Alas, I found that so far The Shifting Tide was the best of the lot. So if you are thinking about this book, but haven't read The Shifting Tide, I suggest you move on to that one instead . . . unless you have a compulsion to read every book in the series.

William Monk is a man who doesn't know who he is. An accident cost him his memory, but in this book facts and vague memories combine to help him reconstruct part of his past. Now, he earns a living as a private enquiry agent in Victorian England. He is married to the redoubtable Hester who runs a charity clinic for ladies of the night in one of London's worst neighborhoods.

As the story opens, a famous railroad entrepreneur and financier is found dead inside a notorious house of ill repute. Outraged by the apparent murder, the police are expected to cure the age-old problem of men and one of the oldest professions. Soon, everyone is starving, and the violence increases against the women. Hester is kept busy trying to sew up their wounds and setting their bones. She soon realizes that she needs to solve the murder if she is really to help her patients.

William is hired by Katrina Harcus, the fiancée of a well-to-do Londoner, who wants to be certain that her fiancé is not involved in something untoward. She's overheard scraps of conversation that make her feel that a great crime is about to happen.

The plot bogs down as William is seemingly blocked by both his amnesia and a psychological inability to draw conclusions from the plain words that Katrina shares with him. It's one of the most block-headed investigations you will ever have to read about. The story is saved at the end by the tale finally unfolding in dramatic fashion.

Hester's tracking down of the murderer of the magnate is the better part of the story. If William's part had been left out or edited down, this would have been a four-star book. As it is, you will have to enjoy reading lengthy self-examinations by a confused amnesiac to avoid falling to sleep as you read this slow-moving story.

What makes the book fascinating are the marvelous details and local color about London's seamy side and the development of England's railways. It almost makes you wish Ms. Perry wrote nonfiction books.

2005-01-21 | Jesus Makes Me a Practical Optimist (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 96,000 Helpful Votes Globally) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 3

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Has anyone seen Heavenly Creatures?
I just saw this peter jackson movie about two girls who end up murdering one of their mothers. It's a true story and all, happened in new zealand in 1954. I wanted to see what the girls were up to, so I looked them up. Apparently Ms Perry is one of the girls. So i picked up a copy of the book, and I must say I was rather impressed! She writes from true life and frankly, this novel gave me chills! I suggest viewing the film and then rereading her novels, it makes them far more compelling.

2004-04-24 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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The Shifting Tide: A William Monk Novel (William Monk Novels)

Description

In her new masterpiece featuring private inquiry agent William Monk, New York Times bestselling novelist Anne Perry displays her prodigious writing talent. With insight, compassion, and a portraitist’s genius, Perry illuminates the shifting tide of emotions encompassing Queen Victoria’s London and the people who live there—aristocrats, brothel owners, thieves, Dickensian ruffians, and their evil keepers. She takes us through dangerous backstreets where the poor eke out their humble livings, and into the mansions of the rich, safe and secure in their privileged lives. Or so they believe. . . .

William Monk knows London’s streets like the back of his hand; after all, they are where he earns his living. But the river Thames and its teeming docks— where towering schooners and clipper ships unload their fabulous cargoes and wharf rats and night plunderers ply their trades—is unknown territory.

Only dire need persuades him to accept an assignment from shipping magnate Clement Louvain to investigate the theft of a cargo of African ivory from Louvain’s recently docked schooner, the Maude Idris. Monk is desperate for work, not only to feed himself and his wife, Hester, but to keep open the doors of Hester’s clinic, a last resort for sick and starving street women.

But he wonders: Why didn’t Louvain report the ivory theft directly to the River Police? Why did he warn Monk not to investigate the murder of one of the Maude Idris crew? Even more mysterious, why has Louvain brought to Hester’s clinic a desperately ill woman who he claims is the discarded mistress of an old friend? Neither Hester nor Monk anticipates the nightmare answers to these questions . . . nor the trap that soon so fatefully ensnares them.

In this magnificent novel, Anne Perry holds the reader spellbound, as Monk and Hester struggle to save themselves and their world from a catastrophe whose dimensions they can scarcely measure.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Commissioned to find the precious cargo of ivory stolen by river thieves from the hold of Clement Louvain's ocean-going schooner, private enquiry agent William Monk is intrigued by his new surroundings. The waterfront of the River Thames is a world unto itself, but without the help of the famed River Police, Monk hardly stands a chance of retrieving the ivory or tracking down the murderous men who killed an innocent crew member while robbing Louvain's ship. Not so coincidentally, Monk's wife Hester, who operates a shelter for sick and injured women of the streets, discovers that a woman with a mysterious connection to Louvain may hold the key to the missing ivory as well as many more deaths aboard his ship than the one Monk knows about. Perry's trademarked plotting, characterization, and verisimilitude in recreating Victorian London gleam brilliantly in this well-crafted historical mystery. --Jane Adams

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Customer Reviews

One of the best in this long-running series
This one is something of a departure in the long-running series about William Monk, private investigator in mid-Victorian London, and his wife, Hester, ex-Crimean nurse and avid social activist. Monk is equally familiar with the back streets and opium dens of the underworld and with the drawing rooms of Society, but the Thames is another whole world, a very tough and dangerous one, with which he has almost no experience. But economic times are tough, so he accepts a job from Clement Louvain to locate a shipment of ivory tusks stolen off one of his ships just returned from an African voyage. One of the crew was apparently killed during the theft, but Louvain wants his cargo back before he'll let Monk take the murder to the police. And, of course, Monk solves the mystery and locates the ivory -- and does it all by the halfway point in the narrative. And then things turn ugly. Hester, who has been running a charitable shelter for injured, abused, or ill poor women and prostitutes in a bad part of town, discovers that the woman Louvain brought in, and whose care he has paid for, has been murdered -- but it almost doesn't matter because she was dying of bubonic plague in any case. With the help of a few local men who stand guard and bring supplies, and a handful of very strong women who help her nurse the sick, Hester closes up the clinic from the inside, to contain the plague from spreading and possibly killing off half of Europe again. The pestilence almost certainly arrived on Louvain's ship and Monk has to try to locate the other crew members, who may also be infected. Oliver Rathbone contribution in the courtroom is minimal this time around. It's all Hester's story. It's a harrowing tale and Perry tells it very effectively.

2008-06-25 (Gonzales, Louisiana) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Monk of the River Police

Moving Monk back to the police force is a welcome change in the series. Needing the regular income, Monk replaces the hero of THE SHIFTING TIDE, Inspector Durban, as commander of the Thames River police, trying to win the respect of his men and solve the case of what appears to be a suicide. The dangers of sewer construction and the callous attitudes towards the lives of the people who do the work add a nice historical base for this case. There is also the intriguing shift in the relationship of Monk and his old nemesis, Runcorn. Sutton, Scuff, and Rathbone all make welcome appearances as the series seems to be reinvigorated by the change of scenery. The mystery becomes a bit convoluted with its many twists and turns, but overall this is another fine addition to the series.

2008-03-08 | Jack (Island Heights,NJ) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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I
It's hard to believe that Anne Perry lives in our own time. It would be more believeable if she had been a contemporary of sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She re-creates Vicotrian London with such authenticity that its hard to accept the fact that she lives in our own time.

With every book that I read by Anne Perry, my admiation grows for her. She is a writer's writer. Her prose flows smoothly, her characters come to life, and her plots keep you on t he edge of your seat.

William Monk is another great Perry creation. And "The Shifting Tide" is a book not to be missed!

Also recommended: Ellery Queen: 5 Complete Novels--great puzzle mysteries.

2007-12-10 | AvidReader (New York) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Characters lure reader !
The title of the novel gives the reader an excellent focus on characterization. What seems obvious turns out to be illusory and, at times, frustrating. Hester continues to be noble to a fault. Monk glowers his way through the docks where he encounters minor characters who assume major importance because they are written so well. Lady Callandra, like the tide, recedes which is disconcerting for readers who enjoy her wit and social conscience. Rathbone meanders aimlessly while deciding whether to declare his intentions or remain removed from personal happiness. Louvain's personal villainy is barely credible. It is not only the tide that shifts in this novel and that reality makes Perry's writing an above average effort in its creation of nineteenth century London.
The book is well worth the time spent in reading if only to discover the rat catcher and his dog, the mudlark, the medical crow, and the dock police. Perry knows how to draw characters who lure the reader. One is repeatedly enthralled by them and then even moved to research the social issues inspired by their presence in the novel. It is that social subtext
which raises Perry's work above many others, making this flawed novel worth reading.

2007-05-11 | mrmatthews@ameritech.net (Chicago area) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Monk enters a new phase in his life
I came late to Anne Perry's Monk series - I had read all the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series first - but am now firmly hooked.
This is a book of change for the characters - several large changes occur that will greatly affect the character's lives beyond this book. There are also several new characters (esp. the personable mudlark Scuff) who hopefully have joined the core cast and will be seen in future books.
Overall this is one of the best books of the Monk series in terms of digging in and revealing more of the inner lives of this series' characters.

2006-11-10 | Deb_W (Boston, MA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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