Publisher's Weekly Review
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 fiance 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. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In the seven years William Monk (Funeral in Blue, 2001, etc.) has plied his trade as an inquiry agent, his fear of what he might find has prevented him from ever inquiring very closely into his own past, curtained off by amnesia. Now a new pair of cases holds a dark mirror uncomfortably close. Eminent railroad builder Nolan Baltimore has been found dead near a brothel in the London neighborhood of the shelter Monk's wife Hester runs for abused prostitutes, with every indication that he was killed by a lady he'd engaged for the evening-perhaps a recent debtor to a usurer like Squeaky Robinson who recoiled in murderous horror when she realized the price of interest service on her debt. Katrina Harris, all but engaged to Baltimore's partner, Michael Dalgarno, comes to Monk with suspicions that cast Baltimore & Sons in an even more sinister light. She wants Monk to refute the evidence she's uncovered that links Dalgarno to a construction fraud that could lead to a hideous accident just like the train crash 16 years ago that killed 40 children-a crash that sent Monk's mentor, banker Arrol Dundas, to die in prison, and one that Katrina's evidence suggests Monk himself may have been more closely implicated in than he cares to remember. Perry (Southampton Row, 2002, etc.) is so intent on tracing the fatal misalliances her Victorians forge across class lines they pretend are sacrosanct that she neglects to flesh out her passionate muckraking with characters worth caring about. Only Monk, Hester, and their crusades shine through the period trappings.
Booklist Review
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. --Connie Fletcher
Library Journal Review
More Victorian-era mystery from Perry as William Monk investigates corruption in the railway industry. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
