Rating: 
Summary: Excellent mystery
Review: Victorian era private investigator William Monk lost his memory in a London accident six years ago. He remade himself and his wife Hester is very proud of how her beloved has dealt with adversity. Hester studied nursing under Nightingale and assists surgeon Kristian Beck in the operating room.
When Kristian's wife and a model are killed in an artist's studio, Hester prevails upon Monk to investigate so that any stigma to her employer's name is removed. Unfortunately, Monk finds no evidence to clear him. Instead he finds many reasons why Kristian would want to kill his wife. The police arrest the doctor but his true friends rally around him and force Monk to dig deeper.
Anne Perry has written another fine mystery that captures the essence of Victorian England. Monk is at his best when he searches for the truth even if he is the only outside the police who feels Kristian murdered his spouse. Hester humanizes Monk by showing his compassionate side. Place FUNERAL IN BLUE on your book-shopping list if you want to read an excellent historical mystery by a talented author. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to Perry's usual standards
Review: Well, this book was not what I hoped for when I picked it up. I love the Monk series, but this is not one of Perry's best. It begins with the murder of Kristian Beck's wife. Beck is a friend of Hester, and the secret object of Lady Callandra's love. As another reviewer pointed out, Hester and William are separated throughout most of the book. What a contrast to "Slaves of Obsession", where the love and respect between the two was beautifully illustrated in almost every page. And when they are together, Hester spends most of her time screeching at William every time he finds evidence that suggests that Kristian had motive and/or opportunity to kill his wife. What does she expect him to do? Lie? She is supposed to be a realist, but she runs around getting mad at her husband because he will not sugarcoat the facts to make things all better for Callandra. And Lady Callandra. She is supposed to be a noble and decent woman, but her behavior! I was surprised that she didn't order her wedding clothes the instant she discovered that Beck was a widower. The victim is barely mourned, save for the inconvenience of Beck's arrest, which stands in the way of Lady Callandra finally getting the man she has been infatuated with for years. And then there is the usual "discovery" of the victim's Dark Secret, which had nothing to do with the plot, or the murder. Why did Perry put it in? To make Lady Callandra's continued lusting after after another woman's husband more palatable to the reader? "It's all right to chase another woman's husband, if the other woman is not a nice person."
Rating: 
Summary: Painfully slow...
Review: You know something is wrong when you have to force yourself to finish a book. As anyone can see from my reviews, I am hardly illiterate, nor do I turn up my nose at most genres (except romances!) At one point, I enjoyed Anne Perry's books, but this one was incredibly disjointed, needlessly wordy, the plot needed work, and the characters never take on a semblance of reality. Sometimes I wonder if some of these writers get so use to a certain lifestyle and a certain audience who adores them, that they no longer enjoy writing and they are merely churning out the books for the money. Maybe I am way off bat here, but I have become increasing disgruntled with lazy authors, whether it be in hacked out mysteries, or historical biographers who plagiarize the works of others. If it isn't worth the time to do the job right, then don't do that job... If the reader wants safe reading, if they want to get preached at (the topic for this particular book was racial prejudice against Jews...which I totally agree needs to be brought up again for another generation...but not so obviously!) If the reader wants a dark historical mystery that doesn't demand thinking on the part of the reader...then I guess this book is okay. I don't think I will be picking up a Perry book again.
Karen Sadler, University of Pittsburgh
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