Rating: 
Summary: Another tour-de-force from Anne Perry!
Review: Anne Perry has done it again! "A Breach of Promise" is the best yet in the William Monk/Hester Latterly/Oliver Rathbone series, and Perry succeeds brilliantly in portraying the fog-bound hypocrisy of Victorian England. The atmosphere of cold, foggy and drizzly Victorian London can be almost be felt and the attitudes and behaviour of the English aristocracy of the time are harshly, yet compassionately, portrayed. And if that is a contradiction in terms, read the book to find out why.The plot itself is well thought-out although the denouement fell curiously flat, almost as though Perry ran out of stamina. And the relationship between William Monk and Hester Latterly is growing by leaps and bounds - I look forward to see how Perry will develop this theme in her subsequent books. I feel that Monk and Latterly are a more hard-edged couple than Perry's other creation of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt - although both William Monk and Thomas Pitt are examples of people from outside the charmed social circles who carry considerable loads of cynicism and angst.
Rating:
Summary: Another excellent novel
Review: Anne Perry once again returns to a favorite theme -- People will go to great lengths to avoid exposure of a deeply held secret. In this novel there are several persons who are concealing their pasts and identities and the last revelation is the most surprising.
Her knowledge of Victorian England, of Victorian police procedures at this time and of Victorian class structure and inhibitions is once again revealed by the authenticity of her
narrative.
Anne Perry knows a great deal more than most persons about the most dynamic woman of Victorian England -- Florence Nightingale -- and her knowledge enriches her portrayal of Hester Latterly and of the post-Crimea period in England. Nightingale was a suffragist (one of the first signers of a petition for woman suffrage which was circulated by her friends, John Stuart Mill and his wife Harriet Taylor); one of the first statisticians -- and one of the first members of the Statistical Society in England; a consultant to Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert and a pragmatic and dedicated visionary who spent her life in the service to the sick to which she had dedicated herself when she was only 17. Unfortunately she contracted what was then called "Crimean Fever" during her service in the dreadful British military hospitals of the Crimean War. Recent research indicates that it was probably Brucellosis, caused by
an organism which is and was epidemic and endemic in that region and is characterized by remittant fevers and malaise. (It also occurs in the U.S. among persons who work with cattle and recent cases have been reported in the Western U.S.) Since the germ theory of disease was not available at that time, Nightingale was not diagnosed properly, though she shared the ailment with many others who had served in that region at that time. Hester reflects frequently on her admired mentor and role model, though she mistakenly describes Nightingale's intermittent illnesses as "hypochondria."
Rating: 
Summary: Usual Anne Perry Fare: Victoriana viewed from the 1990's
Review: I have read and enjoyed all of Anne Perry's books, but certainly not for the mystery plot - the solution is always contrived (here, the murderer left too much to chance, in "Cain His Brother" the main character would have had to be an acrobat and have the gift of teletransportation to have done what he was supposed to in the time he was supposed to have done it), and there are holes you can drive an hansom through. I think that's because Ms. Perry's main goal is putting across her views on the social and gender inequalities in English society in the Victorian age. I totally agree with her feminist and liberal views, so I go on reading her books, but she could really make a greater effort in consistency. Here, as in "Weighed in the Balance", the coincidence of having Hester Latterly working in a place where someone is connected to the main mystery is just too much. The main plot was quite sufficient to make her point - though I guessed what was Melville's real problem before I was a third of the way into the book - having the link between the plot and subplot was contrived and unnecessary. And I agree with the other readers who think the ending was much too abrupt. Also, it's very 1990's and American (yes, I know she comes from New Zealand, same difference) to have the characters call each other by their first names, specially a nurse in someone's employ does not call her employers by name or, talking to a child, refer to his parents by first name. Did Jane Austen ever let us know what Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's, or Mrs. Dashwood's, first names were? It bothers me in that it does not give the right formal atmosphere of social conversation of the time. I was glad to see that Ms. Perry seems to have outgrown her love of the verb "to obey" and all its form (obedience, obediently, etc.). She only uses it about ten times in this book - albeit sometimes inappropriately, as when Monk "obediently" follows a servant taking him in to see the master of the house - whereas I've counted up to 25 times in earlier books. A little thing, I agree, but very annoying to a reader (Americans don't use that word so much, do they?). Anyway - to sum it up, this was not the best of Anne Perry's efforts, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I do wish next time she develops the ending more - it's always so satisfying to confront the culprit - and pays more attention to consistency and verbal mores.
Rating: 
Summary: Suing Him When He Backs Out Of Marrying You
Review: I read this mystery set in Victorian England to ascertain how one of these breach of promise cases worked back then. They were abolished in my state several decades ago as being too behind the times with the gains women had made in the market place. In this mystery, a young lady and her family sue the architect who had been building a house for her father for not going forward and marrying her. It's a fascinating case to watch unfold and to see the mystery behind it develop. However, I don't know any of these continuing characters the author uses in her mysteries so that aspect was less successful with me. Also, there's an incredible coincidence that develops at the end of solving this case that the odds were just too long against. An enjoyable read but I'm not rushing out to buy more from this series.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I was up 'till 3am to finish it. The coincidences were a little much, but the suspense was grand. I think it was Perry's best yet (and I've read 'em all).
Rating:
Summary: A slightly unusual Perry premise...
Review: Most of Anne Perry's works dwell on the darker aspects of human nature, notably various sexual perversions hidden under the veneer of upper-class and middle-class Victorian society. Some of her recent works especially in the Inspector Monk series have also dwelt upon the status of Victorian women of good families, notably the tremendous barriers imposed to them professionally in medicine. More recently, her books have touched more explicitly upon political issues of the day. This is a slightly unusual Inspector Monk book, in that there is no sexual perversion hidden as the motive for a murder. I shouldn't give away too much of the plot for those who have not read this book. The story is about the fragility of reputation, the impossibly limited choices available to young women in that society, and the ways in which friendships can be misconstrued. One of the most effective scenes for me was where Sir Oliver Rathbone (the defense lawyer) is neatly boxed in by a match-making mother, and the way in which he understands and reads the minds of the women around him. This is one of the reasons I have kept this particular book, above all the others. The story-line is at least initially not as dark as the typical Anne Perry (warning: her works are not for the squeamish), with the first half of the book being about a trial for breach of promise brought against one of the most brilliant young architects who refuses to marry a young woman. Why he refuses to marry her is not made clear until the middle of the story, and it certainly comes as a shock to all concerned. The second half of the book is much darker, in that the murder is driven by the personal greeds of one of the principal characters in the trial. This person's crimes are only revealed right at the end, so in that respect, the book is an amazing cliff-hanger. We don't know if this person was guilty until the very end of the last murder. I have to admit to some problems with this work. Firstly, the motive for the architect's murder is not made clear. One of the problems is that we never get into the mind of his murderer, and that person's past is reconstructed by Monk. From that point of view, this book is not that successful. In the past, I have fully understood why person X murdered person Y (or several persons). In this particular instance, the murder seemed to make no sense. Secondly, I find it hard to believe that while men would be taken in by a cross-dresser, that women would also be unable to identify a cross-dresser. I won't go into more details, but I am surprised that more suspicions were not raised early on. Although the book is one of Perry's best, I have to also admit that her work is extremely dark. I began reading her in a very dark period in my life. Today, I find the earlier works very good but they are also deeply disturbing. Also in murder stories, I prefer a variety of motives when murder is committed, ranging from psychopathic casualness (chilling in of itself) to blind rage to greed or perversion. While Perry has been widening the range of motives for murder in her novels, most of her murders are committed for sexual (and the odd political) reasons. Reading a whole string of Perrys in a row can therefore be quite depressing and even yawn-producing [with the same narrow range of motives trotted out]. From that perspective, she has moved from being an auto-buy to a "wait-and-see". Perhaps, the surprise element in every series, even a great one, wears out sooner or later, and this has happened with the two brilliant series created by Perry. I still think she has a lot of talent in her; it is just that I no longer resonate with most of her stories.
Rating:
Summary: good book, poor reader
Review: Perry again delivers a book full of evocative Victorian details. She manages to give a feeling of what life was like in such a different time period -- but she's done it before, and better, in some of her earlier books. This time she's on a feminist soapbox about the treatment of talented women in an age when a woman's place was in the home (whether decorating it or scrubbing it) -- and she has her two continuing male characters, Oliver Rathbone and William Monk, delivering most of the (quite unlikely) feminist rhetoric. The ending wraps up two divergent storylines too neatly -- the coincidences just are not credible.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK POORLY READ
Review: Simon Jones' reading was disappointing and irritating. It was choppy and brusk, nearly without any emotion or 'feeling'. His voices tended to be the same- nasal and abrupt for men, breathy for women, so it was difficult to tell the characters apart. His unfortunate treatment was very distracting for what is one of Ms Perry's best books and will discourage me from purchasing any more read by him. If you enjoy Anne Perry and wish to listen to her works on tape, I would recommend David McCallum's performances of her Pitt books- they are excellently done. Bottom line: read the book or try the unabridged by a different reader.
Rating:
Summary: MORE TWISTS AND TURNS THAN A ROLLERCOASTER!!
Review: This book "grabbed" me from the first page. I honestly felt as though I was there with the main characters, participating in their experiences and world. As I'd suspected, my INITIAL guess regarding the reason pretty young Zilla's supposed fiance "backed out" was totally "off-base," and made complete sense when it was ultimately divulged. The writing style is lively, EVERYTHING falls neatly into place, and thus I UNHESITATINGLY classify this novel as a COMPELLING "read." I had trouble putting it down once I got "into" it, and found the details related to life and customs during that period to be enlightening, particularly since I'm not a "well-versed" history buff, per se. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading works of general fiction which are neither exceedingly lengthy nor go into painstaking detail.
Rating:
Summary: MORE TWISTS AND TURNS THAN A ROLLERCOASTER!!
Review: This book "grabbed" me from the first page. I honestly felt as though I was there with the main characters, participating in their experiences and world. As I'd suspected, my INITIAL guess regarding the reason pretty young Zilla's supposed fiance "backed out" was totally "off-base," and made complete sense when it was ultimately divulged. The writing style is lively, EVERYTHING falls neatly into place, and thus I UNHESITATINGLY classify this novel as a COMPELLING "read." I had trouble putting it down once I got "into" it, and found the details related to life and customs during that period to be enlightening, particularly since I'm not a "well-versed" history buff, per se. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading works of general fiction which are neither exceedingly lengthy nor go into painstaking detail.
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