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Loading... Dark Assassin (2006)by Anne Perry
None. ereader ebook   romsfuulynn | Apr 28, 2013 |  This entry in the William & Hester Monk series gives away something that happened in The Shifting Tide, so if you plan to read both books, better read the other one first. Monk witnesses two deaths off the Waterloo Bridge, but were they suicide-murder, a victim taking her killer with her, an attempted murderer changing his mind too late? Monk can't tell and neither can the other witnesses. The answer matters because the young woman will be given a shameful burial in unhallowed ground if her death is ruled a suicide. That happened to her father. There's a surviving sister and her children who would have to live with the double disgrace. It's early 1864 and the sewer system of London is being rebuilt after the Great Stink of 1858 and its resulting cholera epidemic. I remember how unpleasant it was to drive near the Potomac river in the summer in our family's unair-conditioned station wagon back in the 1960s. The online descriptions I've just read of the Great Stink are so much worse that I'm forcing myself not to gag. Is this extremely important work being carried out safely or is one of the construction companies involved working too quickly with its improved steam engine? The man who lies in a suicide's grave certainly thought so and his daughter was tracing his actions. It's not just the lives of the workers at stake. There's a chance that the devastating Great Fire of London of 1666 could be repeated, thanks to methane gas and the gas lines for lighting the city. (If you're claustrophobic, you might want to skip the investigation/chase scenes in the sewer tunnels. They're quite nasty.) I freely admit to not solving the case before Monk did. There are plotlines for characters started that I expect to see carried out in later entries and an old problem may be starting to be resolved. I like Scuff the street urchin. A ratcatcher's dog, Snoot, is also an engaging character. Carl D. Galian is the designer and Danilo Ducak is the artist for the dust jacket with the reddish-haired woman standing in front of a bridge rail and looking down at the water, a row of lamps on the bridge lit, and a cab or cart driving away from the reader -- it has already passed the woman. (  ) JalenV | Sep 29, 2012 | A sometimes aggravatingly overwritten police procedural set in London during the massive construction of the London sewer system. The characters are moderately interesting, and there are nice plot twists. I may look at some of the earlier books in the series. ffortsa | Nov 14, 2010 | Reader made the audiobook very interesting. River police see a man and woman go over the bridge into the Thames and begin investigating whether if it's murder or suicide. The investigation uncovers shoddy work in building of the new tunnels under London. (  ) Kathy89 | Jan 2, 2009 | Good series, and good entry in the series. (  ) reannon | Nov 23, 2007 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0345469305, Mass Market Paperback)For countless readers, one of life’s great pleasures is the mesmerizing magic of a Victorian mystery by New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry. Her dramas of good and evil unfolding inside London’s lavish mansions and teeming slums hold us spellbound. Now, in Dark Assassin, she sweeps us into a darkly compelling world that we never dreamed existed.A Thames River Police superintendent struggling to win the respect of his men, William Monk is on a patrol boat near Waterloo Bridge when he notices a young couple standing at the bridge railing, apparently engaged in an intense discussion. The woman waves her arms and places her hands on the man’s shoulders. A caress or a push? The man grasps hold of her. To save her or to kill her? Seconds later, the pair plunge to their death in the icy waters. Monk can’t help but wonder, was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? It seems impossible to determine the truth, but haunted by the woman’s somber beauty, he is impelled to try. Mary Havilland was her name, and she had planned to marry Toby Argyll, the fair-haired man who shared her fate. Mary’s father, an engineer employed by the Argyll Company, had recently died–a suicide, according to the police and Mary’s sister. But Mary’s friends tell Monk that she suspected her father had been murdered because of his stubborn insistence that the Argyll Company’s current project–the construction of a splendid new sewer system for the metropolis–was so badly flawed that it put the entire city in peril from flood and fire. Monk is now faced with the mysteries of the three deaths. Aided by his intrepid wife Hester, he starts looking for answers and is soon treading a slippery path that takes him from the luxurious drawing rooms where powerful men hatch their unscrupulous plots to a world beneath the city where poor folk fight starvation. In nightmarish tunnels, Monk and Hester find true friends, among them Scuff, a young mudlark; Sutton the ratcatcher; and Snoot, Sutton’s clever terrier. For once, even Monk’s old enemy, Superintendent Runcorn, is on his side. As rainfall strains the fragile manmade underground, Monk must connect the clues before death strikes again. With characters as vivid as Dickens’s, gripping courtroom scenes, breathless horrors beneath the earth, and a plot that twists and turns toward a stunning denouement, Dark Assassin is absolutely one of Anne Perry’s best. From the Hardcover edition. (retrieved from Amazon Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:09:53 -0500) "A Thames River Police superintendent struggling to win the respect of his men, William Monk is on a patrol boat near Waterloo Bridge when he notices a young couple standing at the bridge railing, apparently engaged in an intense discussion. The woman waves her arms and places her hands on the man's shoulders. A caress or a push? The grasps hold of her. To save her or to kill her? Seconds later, the pair plunge to their death in the icy waters. Monk can't help but wonder, was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? Determining the truth seems an impossible task, but haunted by the woman's somber beauty, he is impelled to try."."Mary Havilland was her name, and she had planned to marry Toby Argyll, the fair-haired man who shared her fate. Mary's father, an engineer employed by the Argyll Company, had recently died - a suicide, according to the police and Mary's sister. But Mary's friends tell Monk that she suspected her father had been murdered because of his stubborn insistence that the Argyll Company's current project - the construction of a splendid new sewer system for the metropolis - was so badly flawed that it put the entire city in peril from flood and fire." "Monk is now faced with the mysteries of three deaths. Aided by his intrepid wife, Hester, he starts looking for answers and is soon treading a slippery path that takes him from the luxurious drawing rooms where powerful men hatch their unscrupulous plots to a world beneath the city where poor folk fight starvation."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) |
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