A Dangerous Mourning

Rating:
Summary: Three Cheers for Inspector Monk
Review: After seeing so many reviews on Amazon.com for the Pitt series by Anne Perry, I am somewhat surprised that there are not more glowing recommendations for the Inspector Monk series. True, Inspector Monk is not as likeable as Pitt and the stories are set in a slightly earlier period. But the stories! The characters! They are simply superb.

In this second book of the series, Perry uses her considerable skills as a writer and her fascination with the secrets people keep to great advantage in getting to the bottom of the death of Octavia Haslett, a young widow. In his efforts Inspector Monk is assisted by Hester Latterly, one of Florence Nightingale's Crimean nurses. We are also introduced to another marvelous character, Oliver Rathbone--a brilliant litigator and trial attorney. As Monk deciphers the meagre clues available to him he realizes that the murderer of Mrs. Haslett lived in her house, and may strike again. All fingers begin to point to a unlikeable footman, but Monk believes he has been framed and refuses to act on the instructions of Runcorn, his supervisor, who wants the case wrapped up due to pressure from the social and political elite who cannot abide the suggestion that one of their own might have committed the murder. Runcorn is certainly the boss no one would want to have, and in his fury he fires Monk who is forced to rely on the recently unemployed and also very outspoken Nurse Latterly to infiltrate Mrs. Haslett's home and find out the secrets within. By the end of the story Monk and Latterly are on different paths--Monk is heading up a private detective agency, and Latterly is serving as a private duty nurse. On to Defend and Betry to see if their new career paths work out!

If you like Inspector and Charlotte Pitt, give Inspector Monk a try. The psychological tautness of these novels is a nice change of pace!

Rating:
Summary: Three Cheers for Inspector Monk
Review: After seeing so many reviews on Amazon.com for the Pitt series by Anne Perry, I am somewhat surprised that there are not more glowing recommendations for the Inspector Monk series. True, Inspector Monk is not as likeable as Pitt and the stories are set in a slightly earlier period. But the stories! The characters! They are simply superb.

In this second book of the series, Perry uses her considerable skills as a writer and her fascination with the secrets people keep to great advantage in getting to the bottom of the death of Octavia Haslett, a young widow. In his efforts Inspector Monk is assisted by Hester Latterly, one of Florence Nightingale's Crimean nurses. We are also introduced to another marvelous character, Oliver Rathbone--a brilliant litigator and trial attorney. As Monk deciphers the meagre clues available to him he realizes that the murderer of Mrs. Haslett lived in her house, and may strike again. All fingers begin to point to a unlikeable footman, but Monk believes he has been framed and refuses to act on the instructions of Runcorn, his supervisor, who wants the case wrapped up due to pressure from the social and political elite who cannot abide the suggestion that one of their own might have committed the murder. Runcorn is certainly the boss no one would want to have, and in his fury he fires Monk who is forced to rely on the recently unemployed and also very outspoken Nurse Latterly to infiltrate Mrs. Haslett's home and find out the secrets within. By the end of the story Monk and Latterly are on different paths--Monk is heading up a private detective agency, and Latterly is serving as a private duty nurse. On to Defend and Betry to see if their new career paths work out!

If you like Inspector and Charlotte Pitt, give Inspector Monk a try. The psychological tautness of these novels is a nice change of pace!

Rating:
Summary: End of the series(for me!)
Review: Having read the first "Monk" book, "Face of a Stranger," I was excited when I received this offering. The excitement didn't last very long. Regretfully, I got half-way through and couldn't pick it up again. Bogged down in too much non-essential, confusing detail.

Rating:
Summary: End of the series(for me!)
Review: Having read the first "Monk" book, "Face of a Stranger," I was excited when I received this offering. The excitement didn't last very long. Regretfully, I got half-way through and couldn't pick it up again. Bogged down in too much non-essential, confusing detail.

Rating:
Summary: An Inspector Monk novel where someone else solves the case?
Review: I found this book an utterly dreary bit of work. It is filled with incredibly two dimensional characters. As well as the fact that there are so many characters that none of them are done in any depth. And nearly all are sterotypes. All the ladies and gentlemen in the story are overly dimwitted. As does the hero of the book Inspector Monk. Who is truely baffled and wanders around asking the same questions over and over. It became quite boring after a while. The book slowed down to a crawl at times and desperatly needed some life in it. The fact that Monk really does fail to work out what was going on is very disapointing. Especially when compared to The face of a stranger. Which I did enjoy reading. The real heroine in this story is Hester Lattery. As she is the only one who really works anything out. Her being written into this novel I find dubious at best. My opinion is that she should have worked more with Monk and his assistant Evan both of who hold much potential as characters. There was also two much courtroom drama. Which in a mystery novel I find absolutly little need for. It was almost as if Perry was confused as to what she wanted to write. A mystery novel or a courtroom battle. I feel much of the courtroom was written so Hester Lattery had an enterence and no more than that. As the dealings of it have absolutly no relevance to this book.

The good part of the book is the plot and the setting. The ideas she has are good and interesting. The main characters are interesting and have alot of potential. They were just under used or poorly done this time round.

However I have not given up on her yet and I will read the third book Defend and Betray.

Rating:
Summary: Perry leaves you guessing till the end!
Review: The second book in Perry's "Inspector Monk" series, "A Dangerous Mourning" is my favorite of her books yet. It's the story of a widowed daughter of a well-to-do family who is found dead on her bed, having been stabbed with a knife. As Monk investigates, he knows he will uncover a multitude of secrets the family has worked so hard at keeping concealed.

This is the fifth book of Anne Perry's I have read, and it is my favorite so far. I have found in reading some of her other books there are long passages that seem to lose me and clutter up the process of solving the mystery. This book was quite different, though, and held my interest from beginning to end. Perry had me guessing until the end.

This is a great read, and I would suggest reading the first book "Face of a Stranger." It will give you background into Monk's and Hester Latterly's lives so that the characters will make more sense. Also "Dangerous Mourning" concludes the previous book and lets you know what happened to the murderer in that story.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe all of the bad reviews!
Review: This novel was thrilling from start to finish and it left me guessing until the very end. I do agree that the book had too much information in it that really had nothing to do with the story, but all in all this was a thrilling and entertaining read!