Anne Perry (1938–2023)

In this latest novel by Anne Perry, when Hester Monk hears about a church which is pushing its parishioners to donate more than they can afford, indeed, so much that it has financially ruined some, she decides she must investigate. What she learns makes her suspect that the preacher, Adam Taft, is bilking his mostly poor parishioners out of their money, not for other poorer folk as they are being told but so that he and his family can live a lavish lifestyle. When a bookkeeper confirms her show more suspicions, she reports it to the law.

The Monks' friend Sir Oliver Rathbone, is selected to reside over the trial as judge. As the trial moves forward, it becomes clear that the defence is winning, thanks mainly to the testimony of one witness. Rathbone believes that Taft is guilty but there is nothing he, as judge, can do until he realizes he may hold damning evidence against the witness. His interference in the trial has consequences more dire than he had considered not only to the witness but to Taft and Rathbone himself. Soon, he is the one on trial and it is up to the Monks to discover evidence which can save him.

Most of the story revolves around the trials, first of Tate and then Rathbone's. We get very little of Hester's investigation of the church except the outcome. Monk's investigation of the aftermath of Rathbone's revelation is more detailed. There are several references to a past story and reading it may have helped with some of the background but it wasn't necessary to follow this one. Perry did a very good job of weaving this into the narrative without making the mistake of lesser authors of telling it through the conversation of characters who shouldn't need the recap.

However, like in most of Perry's novels, the main character is really Victorian England itself, always lovingly betrayed in all its fog enshrouded glory from the abject poverty surrounding the docks to the palatial estates of the wealthy in Knightsbridge. Whether it's an accurate portrait is less important than that Perry makes it a seductive one.

Despite being set in the sprawl of mid-19th c. London, Blind Justice has the feel of a cosy mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie. There is little violence and what there is tends to be in the background; bodies are found, never killed in plain view of the reader; the investigators are mostly nice amateurs, in this case, Hester, with a rare understanding of human nature; good almost always triumphs over evil and bad people almost always get their comeuppance. I added the almosts because, unlike the usual cosy, Perry also recognizes that the power to judge can easily become the power to corrupt and that, as the old cliche warns, two wrongs don't make a right. Sometimes, it is important to step away from the abyss even if it allows bad people to get away if we are to remain human. It is this rare ability to add nuances in a genre filled with stories of a manichean simplicity which sets Anne Perry apart and makes her novels so compelling. show less

Victor and Vespasia. Always a pleasure!

I love these two, Victor Narraway and Lady Vespasia. True love in their mature years. As Vespasia muses, "So late in life, she had found the man she truly loved with all the passion, intelligence, and trust in her nature." What a special couple!
Victor has retired as head of the London Special Branch, but unbeknownst to Vespasia he's acting as a contact for a young woman, Iris Watson-Watt, involved in a sting to unmask a traitor. So they are spending show more Christmas at Cavendish Hall the country house of Max and Lady Amelia Cavendish. Not really where they both wanted to be. For Victor this case is personal. It takes him back to a similar occassion in France which did not end well. And like that time twenty years ago, the young woman Iris is attacked. Recovery is uncertain. Will history repeat itself?
Vespasia of course knows most of the people at the house party, not that she'd had much to do with them for some time.
The guests seem an uneasy lot and when the claws come out, I applauded the way Vespasia held her own against cutting remarks made by the hostess. Such panache and style!
A taut mystery novella that showcases the strengths and misgivings of these two wonderful Perry personalities that I've always adored. Another Anne Perry Christmas treat!

A Random House ARC via NetGalley show less

Author Anne Perry's Elena Standish mystery series is her newest and is a spectacular addition to her collective works. This second book in series is exciting, clever, very well written and it deftly weaves three story lines which converge on a thrilling climax. Her scene descriptions are painterly and provide equally a glimpse into the subtle nuances of human interaction through the personalities of her well-conceived characters. Perry is truly masterful.

After her harrowing experiences in show more "Death in Focus" (the first book in series), our protagonist, Elena Standish, receives her first MI6 assignment. Going into enemy territory, making contact and safely extracting a deeply embedded agent is a tall order for anyone, let alone a freshman agent. However, as Elena was once the love interest of said agent, she is the best MI6 has at locating and identifying the agent by subtle mannerisms, even though six years have passed since they were last together. She convinces herself that she can keep this totally professional, make the contact, and get the guy out of Trieste, Italy. show less

This gripping novel is a murder mystery set during the French Revolution, in the run up to the execution of the former King Louis XVI in January 1793. In the desperate economic situation of the time, the inhabitants of Citizen Bernave's house, including his extended family, servants, and others, are shocked one night when a band of desperate citizens invade the house, wrongly believing they are hoarding food. Bernave confronts them, but when the confusion is over, he lies dead, stabbed in show more the back (i.e. by one of his household, not by the intruders). Needless to say, there is a complex set of motives, arising both from the turbulent politics of the time, with double dealing between the rival political factions, and from the past personal actions of the characters. This story has the reader guessing as to the exact motives of Bernave and several of the others right up until a dramatic set of revelations in the final chapter.

The central political thread running throughout the novel centres around moderate revolutionaries who think that the execution of the king, whatever his personal faults and the undoubted evils and injustices of the Ancien Régime, is an act of barbarism which will bring all the surrounding countries invading and tearing France apart, as was indeed the case. The novel has interesting and thoughtful things to say about how revolutions in seeking to destroy all that went before them, the evil and the good, so often end up not replacing them with values and institutions that are better than their abolished predecessors. As one of the non-political characters says, "All I want is safe streets and food in the shops...... I don’t care whether it’s the King, or Marat or the Commune, or who it is. And I think most of the women in France feel the same. What’s a revolution for if we’re all still cold and hungry, and scared stiff of our neighbours in case they take a dislike to us and make a false report to some Section Leader, and the next thing you know, we’re charged with something?". The fanaticism of the Jacobins is well illustrated by an oration by the cold Louis Saint Just: "The vessel of the revolution can arrive in port only on a sea reddened with torrents of blood! .....We must not only punish traitors, but all people who are not enthusiastic. There are only two kinds of citizen, the good and the bad. The republic owes the good its protections. To the bad it owes only death!". As Célie Laurent observes of the humourlessness of the radicals, "Was it really necessary to be humourless in order to be good? Could one not possibly bring about social change for the better, and still keep the ability to see the absurd, and to laugh at it?". A really gripping novel, though I am puzzled by its banal and seemingly meaningless title, what is that all about?. show less