Death of a Stranger

September 9, 2002
Bestseller Perry's latest novel (after 2001's Funeral in Blue) to feature mid-Victorians William Monk and his wife, Hester, offers an ingenious and baffling plot, compelling characters, both major and minor, plus plenty of courtroom drama, but is something of a diamond in the rough. In London's East End, Hester, a former nurse with Florence Nightingale, has established a shelter for prostitutes where the ill and injured can be treated. One night, a well-known railway magnate is found dead in a nearby brothel, and the police presence in the area grinds the illicit business of the pimps and prostitutes to a halt. William, meanwhile, has undertaken a private investigation into possible fraud. His client, the fiancée of a young executive for the same railway as the murder victim, fears her betrothed may be implicated in the fraud scheme. As William recognizes parallels with the past, memories that he lost in an accident seven years earlier start to haunt him. Unfortunately, the book suffers from hasty execution, as reflected in repetitious phrasing, pronouns with unclear antecedents and confusing narrative transitions between Hester and William and between William in the present and William before his amnesia. The result is a challenging read, though established fans will likely forgive the author her lapses because she tells such a wonderful story. (Oct. 1)Forecast:Perry is also the author of the Thomas Pitt Victorian series, most recently
Southampton Row (Forecasts, Jan. 14), which was up to her usual high standard. Pressure to deliver the same quality on the first of her forthcoming WWI quintet may account for the relative weakness of what seems like a wrapup of the Monk series. Nonetheless, this entry should sell well enough.

June 1, 2002
More Victorian-era mystery from Perry as William Monk investigates corruption in the railway industry.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2002
Perry's highly acclaimed Victorian gaslighters starring London private investigator William Monk have all harbored a secret at their core: William Monk's past life, shrouded from him by amnesia. Perry's 11 previous Monk novels toy with the torment the investigator endures as a result of his amnesia. In Perry's latest, Monk's past catches up with him, threatening to overwhelm his sanity and his carefully constructed life. Fans of this highly acclaimed series (Perry writes two Victorian mystery series, one starring Monk, the other starring Thomas Pitt) will delight in the way clues to Monk's past, strewn through previous volumes, add up to a startling but fitting revelation. All readers will profit from Perry's deft handling of three mysteries at once here, as well as her providing a wealth of historical detail. The mysteries converge on the clinic operated for prostitutes by Monk's wife, Hester. On the night a railroad magnate is found murdered in a London brothel, three badly beaten prostitutes seek help at the clinic. Their plights, the mystery of the murdered gentleman, and Monk's past all start to intersect when a young woman seeks Monk's aid in investigating her fiance, who she fears may be guilty of fraudulent practices at his railway firm. The plot steams along to a heart-stopping climax. Another Perry tour de force.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)