sampo24's Full Review: Anne Perry - A Dangerous Mourning
I picked up my first Anne Perry novel a couple years ago, and though Victorian mysteries are generally not the kind of genre I read, her books have been an exception. I have been hooked ever since. Luckily she has written a huge number of these, so I still have a long time before I have to worry about the dreaded "Waiting for the next installment syndrome".
As well as a recent foray into fantasy, Anne Perry has two different series, both set in Victorian London, but a few decades apart. One features Investigator Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte who work as a crime solving team. The second is the Inspector Monk series, which this book is part of the latter. In fact, this is the second book in the series.
The book starts with the body of a young widow found stabbed to death in her bedroom. At first it looks as though she was simply a victim of an attempted robbery gone astray. However, soon our hero, William Monk discovers that the murder could only be committed by someone in the house. The fact that the widow is a member of a highly respected aristocratic family only makes the situation even stickier.
Soon, Monk is caught up in a conundrum. If the murderer was a member of the family, he could lose his position by accusing someone in the upper classes. And the most convenient suspect, a completely unlikeable servant, may simply be set up to take the fall for the real killer. Monk is pressured to arrest someone quickly in order to sweep the mess under the table, but would it cause a greater miscarriage of justice? Or is he willing to put his career on the line to discover the truth of the matter?
The book has an excellent mystery that left me wondering how it would turn out up to the end. I hate reading stories that are supposed to suprise you, but actually scream out the name of the real killer in every page. Perry, however, has the gift of writing stories that actually keep you wondering. I was only able to catch on to bits and pieces of the puzzle, but there were many elements in this complex tale to keep me on my toes throughout the book.
Another strong point is Anne Perry's ability to write realistic characters that you are engrossed in. At the same time as Monk is trying to piece together clues to the crime, he is still trying to piece together clues to his own life as a result of an accident that left his memory wiped clean. And the more he discovers about himself before his accident, the less he likes the man he once was. Despite often seeming like he is stumbling around blindly, he still has not lost his quick senses and love of his job. Nor has he given up on his quest to seek out justice for those who need it.
Where the first book in the series, Face of a Stranger, serves as an introduction into the series and is a very good book in it's own right, I believe this is the book that sets the stage for future events in the series. In it, characters we first met are fleshed out more fully, relationships are more clearly defined and rivalries are begun. The "Sam and Diane" relationship between Monk and Hester Latterly, a nurse who is a great help in solving his cases is also brought out even more clearly, setting up for all sorts of fun in the later books. Plus, this novel also ties up some loose ends from the case Monk solved in the first book.
As a result, though this novel would stand on it's own, it would be better read after reading the first book. It would give greater understanding into the minds of the characters and help answer any questions that might arise while reading this book. I have been skipping around back and forth myself in the series, so it isn't necessary. But it is helpful. Either way you go, you will definitely enjoy yourself with either this or any of Anne Perry's mysteries.
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