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by: Anne Perry
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780345440099
ISBN: 0345440099
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: April 27, 2004
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: April 27, 2004
Sales Rank: 472269
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Review:
Product 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.
Amazon.com Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
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