Rating: 
Summary: One of Perry's best novels
Review: A lady instructs ex-inspector Monk to find evidence of her husband's death. She is convinced that Angus, a devoted husband and father has been murdered by his twin-brother Caleb, a true monster by all accounts. Her means of susbsistence are threatened because she and her five children cannot inherit Angus' fortune unless she is able to produce a body. Monk understands her existential dread. Of course, there is always the possibility that Angus went deliberately underground or that his wife had a hand in it. He is helped by nurse Hester Latterly, who is very busy with typhoid patients, rich and poor, and by star-attorney Oliver Rathbone who pleads Mrs. Angus' cause before court. Monk goes also through a private nightmare: he falls in love with a charming lady who encourages his advances. Suddenly she tears her clothes up in full view of many high-born eyewitnesses and runs away screaming...But before she is able to round off her scheme and ruin Monk's career, Hester resorts to a very artful ruse...One of Perry's best. Gripping, psychologically revealing, and sociocritical. Perry is as good as Dickens when she exposes grievances. In one scene she reveals that the lower classes of the time owned just one pot: for cooking, doing the laundry, washing the baby and as nightpot...Hester's counteroffensive against the libellous lady will make you shake with laughter - and wince...
Rating: 
Summary: Perry does it again!
Review: Angus Stonefield's wife enlists William's help when her husband vanishes. His brother Caleb, who lives in the worst part of London, is believed to hold the key to his disappearance. William handles this investigation, and is forced to deal with yet another painful situation from the past he no longer remembers, with help once again from Hester and Oliver. Anne Perry is a master at the surprise ending. This one is no exception
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Monk--confusing rather than baffling
Review: At the end of this book--which features one of my favorite literary characters, William Monk--I still didn't know "who dunnit," and I felt a real sense of relief that it was OVER. I still enjoyed the book, but it was neither as riveting, nor as satisfying, as her other Monk novels. William Monk, still suffering from almost total amnesia, is still working as a private detective in London in the 1850s. In this novel, with his sidekicks Callandra Daviot, Hester Latterly, and Oliver Rathbone, he is called to investigate the disappearance of Angus Stonefield at the request of his wife, Genevieve. For days and days (and hundreds of pages) Monk looks for clues as to how and why Angus has disappeared. Finally, Monk has to agree with Genevieve that the secret must lie in his relationship with his estranged brother, Caleb. Caleb freely admits he destroyed Angus, but Monk is not able to catch him. As with most William Monk novels, all the revelations come in the trial, where family secrets are finally displayed. If you are a real Monk fan like me you will still enjoy this book. However, if you read Monk here and there, you probably will do better to skip this book and move on to another one. You also might enjoy this book better if you watch Heavenly Creatures and find out about Anne Perry's adolescence!
Rating:
Summary: Not the best Monk--confusing rather than baffling
Review: At the end of this book--which features one of my favorite literary characters, William Monk--I still didn't know "who dunnit," and I felt a real sense of relief that it was OVER. I still enjoyed the book, but it was neither as riveting, nor as satisfying, as her other Monk novels. William Monk, still suffering from almost total amnesia, is still working as a private detective in London in the 1850s. In this novel, with his sidekicks Callandra Daviot, Hester Latterly, and Oliver Rathbone, he is called to investigate the disappearance of Angus Stonefield at the request of his wife, Genevieve. For days and days (and hundreds of pages) Monk looks for clues as to how and why Angus has disappeared. Finally, Monk has to agree with Genevieve that the secret must lie in his relationship with his estranged brother, Caleb. Caleb freely admits he destroyed Angus, but Monk is not able to catch him. As with most William Monk novels, all the revelations come in the trial, where family secrets are finally displayed. If you are a real Monk fan like me you will still enjoy this book. However, if you read Monk here and there, you probably will do better to skip this book and move on to another one. You also might enjoy this book better if you watch Heavenly Creatures and find out about Anne Perry's adolescence!
Rating: 
Summary: Tediously repetitive
Review: I liked Anne Perry at first but must say that the more I read of her, the more impatient I become with the tedious repetitiveness of her descriptive passages.
Rating:
Summary: An enthralling read with a disappointing ending
Review: I love Anne Perry's ability to twist and wind through a story and keep you hanging until the last pages. I also love her well researched novels that offer such exsquisite detail about Victorian London, especially the class differences (particularly in this book). Unfortunately I found the conclusion of this novel truly unoriginal and disappointing. The result it ended with was a thought that had ocurred to me earlier in the novel, but I doubted it just because of the lack of inspiration it required. I am more fond of the Monk/Latterly series than the Pitts series, and "Cain..." is one of the better stories among the Perry novels, but I would definitely read it knowing in advance that the ending doesn't compare with the rest of the story. If you want a truly excellent Anne Perry book, read "The Face of a Stranger" (the first Monk/Latterly novel). A great read.
Rating:
Summary: An enthralling read with a disappointing ending
Review: I love Anne Perry's ability to twist and wind through a story and keep you hanging until the last pages. I also love her well researched novels that offer such exsquisite detail about Victorian London, especially the class differences (particularly in this book). Unfortunately I found the conclusion of this novel truly unoriginal and disappointing. The result it ended with was a thought that had ocurred to me earlier in the novel, but I doubted it just because of the lack of inspiration it required. I am more fond of the Monk/Latterly series than the Pitts series, and "Cain..." is one of the better stories among the Perry novels, but I would definitely read it knowing in advance that the ending doesn't compare with the rest of the story. If you want a truly excellent Anne Perry book, read "The Face of a Stranger" (the first Monk/Latterly novel). A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Padded writing but gritty atmosphere
Review: Perry's Victorian London mystery, featuring the amnesiac ex-Inspector William Monk and the Florence Nightingale-trained nurse Hester Latterly, revolves around the disappearance of a model husband and father of five with a successful business. Angus Stonefield disappears on a visit to his vicious and violent twin brother in the slums and Angus' lovely wife is convinced that this time Caleb - the twin - has murdered her husband. While investigating, Monk runs into Hester Latterly setting up a make-shift hospital to deal with a serious outbreak of typhoid in the filthy and overcrowded slums. Hester and Monk's relationship remains tensely ambivalent and Monk's bitter interior monologues become tediously repetitious. This is a heavily padded novel with an overworked plot device but Perry's fans will enjoy her gritty depiction of hopeless poverty and stark class divisions.
Rating:
Summary: This book is interesting from start to finish.
Review: This book holds your attention from the very start. Victorian London is re-created in exquisite detail by Perry, and the
characters are described in such a way that you feel like you know them. The book contains several interesting plots and a
surprise ending.
Rating:
Summary: Great read of Victorian England
Review: This book is the latest By Ane Perry in her classic Inspector Monk series. It involves a respected businessman who disappears while visiting his despicable low-life twin brother . Inspector Monk is put on the case to find the man or prove that the brother killed him, what follows is a very graphic description of the slums of England in the 1850's and how people really lived in those times. Anne Perry does a fantastic job of recreating that period of history. The book is fast-paced and has many great twists and turns until the surprising conclusion at the end. It will definitely keep you guessing throughout
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