A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry (William Monk Book 18)

 

Publication Date:

August 28, 2012

Genre: 

Mysteries, Historical Mysteries

Length:  

373 pages

Series:

William Monk

Book description courtesy of Goodreads

As commander of the River Police, Monk is accustomed to violent death, but the entrails hanging from the mutilated female body found on Limehouse Pier one chilly December morning move him with horror and pity. The victim’s name is Zenia Gadney. Her waterfront neighbors can tell him little—only that the same unknown gentleman had visited her once a month for many years. She was quiet and dull, unlike the usual fallen doxy; her pillar of support was respectable Dr Lambourn, recent suicide after his government requisitioned report on opium was discredited.

Monk's old superior Runcorn was first on the scene for Lambourn, and now suspects government suppression. Lambourn's beautiful wife wife Dinah, lies about her whereabouts, denies accusations, but Monk must arrest her despite his belief in her innocence. While public, press, government, and biased judge push for quick hanging before Xmas, Monk, his spirited wife Hester, and their brilliant barrister friend Oliver Rathbone, search for answers. From dank waterfront alleys to London’s fabulously wealthy West End, the three trail an ice-blooded murderer toward the unbelievable, possibly unproveable truth—and ultimately engage their adversaries in an electric courtroom duel.

My Thoughts:

It took me awhile to finish this book. I kept getting sidetracked by shorter or easier reads. I finally buckled down and read the last hundred pages straight through in two days and that made the story more compelling. Perry's books build....especially the Monk books with a courtroom angle and Sir Oliver Rathbone, attorney leading the trial. I thought the story was short on content because the courtroom dialogue was often repetitive and the characters not very sympathetic. 

The story itself was interesting in that I learned about the Opium Wars between Britain and China in the mid-1800's and had only a very cursory understanding of them before. Perry often takes real historical events, such as the Crimean War or in this book the Opium Wars and weaves it into her mysteries. While the people are fictional, the events are not and so you end up learning information with a narrative style. The accused, Dinah Lambourn does not play much of a role in the book, rather it focuses on her being accused of murder and the lives of the victims are discussed far more. I didn't find the answer of who the murderer was to be all that surprising. I had suspected one or two people for awhile and was right. Although it was still a clever ending. Her books always are.

This one I confess was one of my least favorite Monk books and Hester, his wife hardly appears in it. Since it it book 18 I hope it isn't that Perry just started running out of steam. Maybe this one was just a bridge to the next being more exciting. I will pick up with them again soon, I always do, Monk is a great series, even when it isn't my favorite installment.