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A review by amekatz
A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry
4.0
Octavia Haslett, Sir Moirdore's daughter, is murdered in her first-floor (second-floor for us Yanks) bedroom, and Monk and Evan are put on the case. Evidence points to an intruder climbing through her window, but Monk soon proves that the killer had to be someone in the household. Lady Moidore has taken to her bed, ill with distraught, so Monk enlists Hester to apply as nursemaid and do some discreet investigation. Of course, everyone knows one of the servants MUST be guilty. Monk isn't so sure, even when evidence is found in one of the footmen's bedrooms; he believes someone planted it there. Monk refuses to arrest the footman when Runcorn orders him, and Runcorn not only takes him off the case but throws him off the police force. He leaves Evan on the case but sends a different policeman to arrest Percival, who was subsequently hung. It turns out the poor footman hung for a crime he didn't commit becuase there was no crime.
Many people have written that A Dangerous Mourning moves too slowly and spends too much time describing the Victorian household. But that's why I love Anne Perry's William Monk and Thomas Pitt series. I thoroughly enjoy learning about how historical households were run and society at large. People say the classes today are too stratified, and maybe they are, but it's nothing compared to the Victorian age. True, Hester and William appear to be growing ever closer in their relationship, and Charlotte married Thomas Pitt, but her family was not peerage. But Octavia and Percival could NEVER have fallen in love and wanted to marry. I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with more of the Monk series and continue from wherever my reading dropped off.
Many people have written that A Dangerous Mourning moves too slowly and spends too much time describing the Victorian household. But that's why I love Anne Perry's William Monk and Thomas Pitt series. I thoroughly enjoy learning about how historical households were run and society at large. People say the classes today are too stratified, and maybe they are, but it's nothing compared to the Victorian age. True, Hester and William appear to be growing ever closer in their relationship, and Charlotte married Thomas Pitt, but her family was not peerage. But Octavia and Percival could NEVER have fallen in love and wanted to marry. I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with more of the Monk series and continue from wherever my reading dropped off.