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Summary: Is it Lyman Breedlove or Lyman Breeland?
Review: This book was an intricate victorian mystery with historical overtones and I enjoyed it. But I was confused during the whole book, looking for Lyman Breeland to be revealed as some kind of dual personality or undercover spy, because the flyleaf write-up on the hardbound version refers to him as Lyman Breedlove. What gives? I spent the whole book looking to solve this puzzle and by the end it was obviously a (major) publishing faux pas. Anybody else find this?
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Summary: Good Victorian Mystery
Review: This is a good Victorian mystery, but not as great as Anne Perry's other works. I am a particular fan of the William Monk series, so I was a bit disappointed with this one. I found that it was very easy to get the mystery. Ms. Perry's characters are still good, and very well drawn. Her description of the Battle of Bull Run was quite refreshing. Having the story take place in two continents is a bit different for her, but I like the American segment quite well. I do hope further William Monk stories will be as good as all the others previously were.
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Summary: Interesting historical suspense novel.
Review: This was my first Anne Perry novel (audio abridgment). I found it to be entertaining and it moved along quite well.
William Monk is one of Perry's regular characters. Set in Victorian England there is a cast of characters with passionate beliefs and different motivations. I suspected one to be the evil antagonist--but discovered it was not him as the story progressed. (All the clues are not available within an abridgment.)
There were a few interesting twists...and the break from the underwater sequence with Monk kept me on edge.
In the book you embark on a voyage to America coinciding with the beginning of the American Civil War. Hester and William Monk travel by boat on a mission to bring back the run-away daughter of Albertson. Meritt's confused passion for the abolishment of slavery is exhibited as a romantic crush for Lyman...a Northerner bent on purchasing guns from her father-- despite Albertson's continued refusal to sell them to him. Albertson's murder just happens to concide with the gun delivery to Lyman.
The return to England takes you through the trial and the revelation of what actually happens after both Lyman and Meritt are acquitted of wrong doing.
This engaging work will put Anne Perry on my list of authors to explore further.
Rating: 
Summary: Anne perry always delights
Review: While England remains at peace, across the Atlantic, the first major battle of the Civil War occurs. Agents from the opposing forces try to buy arms from Daniel Alberton. When William and Hester Monk meet Daniel, his wife Judith, and their daughter Merrit, Lyman Breeland demands the arms merchant sell to the Union while Philo Trace wants the weapons to go to the Confederacy. Alberton does not favor one side over the other, but will honor the deal he made with Trace. Merrit loves Lyman, who she sees as a hero. Not long afterward, Alberton and two of his men die and the guns and ammo are missing. Merrit and the Union soldier travel to America with evidence showing that she and her suitor committed the crimes. Judith Alberton asks the Monks to find her daughter and return her to England. As the Monks work on the case, they begin to wonder who are the victims and who are the criminals? Anne Perry always writes a memorable Victorian mystery that leaves her myriad of fans shouting masterpiece. The glimpse of the American Civil War from the British side is as enlightening as much as observing the English justice system at work. SLAVES OF OBSESSION is constructed in such a way so as to the make the mystery seem obvious until the protagonists begin to dig for the truth. The novel turns into a personal coup for the author showing yet again the degree of talent and confidence Ms. Perry has. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: My first "go" at the William Monk series
Review: While shelf-browsing my local library, I happened open this book and was intrigued by its attractive cover and its historical premise, so I picked it up. I, too, could not finish the book and stopped short of the trial in London. It opened fairly well with the moral issue of slavery becoming a heated topic at a London merchant's dinner table. The 16-year old daughter is indignant that her father is selling efficiently lethal rifles and ammunition to the Confederacy. Her passion has been influenced by a rival Union arms buyer who pleads the moral case as well, and with whom she later flees to the U.S. I found the characters convincing one moment, and then rather wooden the next. The same with the Victorian milieu -- it struck me as unevenly depicted. For me this was a major flaw as the best historical novels and detective stories have an optimal weaving of story, character and environment to make the "whole cloth", so to speak. In addition, the detective Monk seemed a rather lame chap in this work. Mystery detectives, even when they're not doing much or are hovering in the background, ought to have a looming presence as they are to a greater or lesser degree the moral presence in the story, the one who must discover the truth. The Adam Dalgliesh character of P.D. James is almost always successfully rendered in this way, even though he may be absent for a good part of the story. What went wrong with SoO? Look at the author's extensive credits at the front of the book. Ms. Perry is a "writing machine" if there ever was one, and prolific genre writers can get overextended, disconnected and thin from time to time. That's what happened here, I wager.
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