Revenge in a Cold River

Pure intense Perry!

A drowned man is washed up along the Thames. Why has Custom Officer McNab called in Commander Monk of the Thames River Police to investigate? A man who is an escaped prisoner is under McNab's jurisdiction. The dislike of McNab for Monk is palpable, as is the supercilious attention McNab gives to Monk. Already my hackles are raised. This is the man who instigated action in which Orme was killed. Of course the Thames River cohorts are suspicious. As am I!
Monk's past rises to haunt his coming days along with the advent of some American vessel owners who recall him from San Francisco.
McNab looms like a malevolent spectre, it seems he knows things about Monk's past and is using Monk's ignorance to advantage. MacNab's show more feeling for Monk is 'more than professional rivalry, more than personal dislike. It was hate, deep and poisonous hate.'
The link between the river pirates and McNab is gaining weight, but why is McNab so set on going after Monk?
McNab is driving Monk to the point of ruin. Monk is being tried for the murder of one of MacNab's men in connection with another escaped prisoner.
Beata York, friend of Oliver Rathbone, and widow of the High Court Judge who so pursued Monk, joins Hester in her search for something that will point to Monk's innocence.
An American woman, Miriam, hides a past that has bearing on Monk.
The twists ramp up the intrigue and I couldn't read fast enough to see what the resolution would be.
Wow, such a satisfying ending!

A NetGalley ARC show less

Anne Perry mines [pun intended] William Monk's permanent memory loss again to endanger him in Revenge in a Cold River, the 22nd book in the series. We get to learn, along with Monk, what he was up to during the California Gold Rush days. Hope his River Police will be impressed.

There's a cold case murder to be solved and a present-day enemy or two to be dealt with. To learn more about the tragic gun runners case, see book 21, Corridors of the Night.

Sir Oliver Rathbone is finally able to work again after the events of book 19, Blind Justice, the only book in the series that I couldn't bring myself to get through. (It suffers from 'the idiot plot,' which is when one or more characters have to act like an idiot or there is no plot.) show more There's some progress on his current romance front. Let us hope that Ms. Perry will be kinder to him this time. I wouldn't bet on it, though.

I enjoyed learning how young Scuff is progressing in his medical studies. Former mudlark Worm gets in some helpful action, too. (Hey, when Robin grew up enough to become Nightwing, Batman got himself a new Robin.)

Monk is going to need all of his Hester's love and belief in him to help him get through the trap set for him. Of course Oliver gets to help in the courtroom scene.

I dare say that Monk's unremembered past will provide more plot fodder in the future. That could be fun. show less

If I could I'd give this one 10 stars! Ms. Perry has outdone herself in this one. Not only do we and William Monk find out a lot about Monk's early life, but we visit all sorts of very interesting places. There is lots of reference to the 1849 San Francisco goldfish, and it was just like being there with Ms. Perry's wonderfuld descriptions. And there is a wonderful sea story with Monk and a friend battling a stormy sea to rescue a woman in distress. Threre is a wonderful courtroom scene as always, and we got a chance to see Monk at his most vulnerable and we see how he handles it while his life is hanging in the balance. There are so many twists and turns in this plot, that it was difficult to figure out the killers, both present-day show more and past. But that's Ms. Perry at her best - cracking dialogue, beautiful descriptions and non-stop suspense. This book could be enjoyed on it's own purely for the mystery, but it's so much better when you know Monk and Hester's backstories. Highly recommended. show less

Got this early from NetGalley.
Anne Perry's series continues with the same idiosyncrasies. Her characters spend a huge amount of time in introspection. Seriously! Even in a life or death situation, they are analyzing their past as if they were on a therapist's couch. They also repeatedly cover the same ground in their thoughts, which I understand may be necessary to some degree if someone's not read previous books, but it all gets to be a bit much.
I rather enjoy the parts of the story that focus on the main characters, their families, etc., but the mysteries, not so much, especially now that they deal almost exclusively with the gritty river police matters.

I don't know how Perry keeps up her interest in Monk. This is the 22nd in the series, and I found I was tired of him--but not of the writing, if that makes any sense.

Of course, I haven't read the last dozen or so in the series, so I don't know if he has begun telling the whole world of his amnesia, but he seemed rather free with the information in this rendition. Since he has been doing a stellar job of detecting for so many years as an amnesiac, I really don't see the point in keeping it a secret any longer. If he was more open, a person such as McNab would have no hold over him.

Perry needs to have a heart-to-heart with Wm, and tell him to stop operating from fear.

Having unburdened myself with all of that, it was nice to find Monk show more has a wholly unknown (until now, that is), skill-set. But no spoiler alert from me! show less

Revenge in a Cold River is another gem by Anne Perry who has created a full and rich world for William Monk and the rest of the characters to inhabit. William Monk is fighting for his life and realizing who his friends are in this exciting tale. I was hooked from the first and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Victorian Era is painted beautifully by the author and the characters are very well rounded. All in all, I loved the book and can't wait for the next William Monk mystery.

While all the William Monk novels feature complicated plots, this story felt unnecessarily convoluted, with tantalizing flashes of memory from San Francisco and sailing adventures twenty years in the past, ongoing enmity between the leaders of the Customs men and the River Police, and the developing relationship between Beata York and Sir Oliver Rathbone. Monk’s wife Hester was relegated to the background, with the story being told from the perspectives of only Beata York and Monk himself.