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A review by felinity
Cain His Brother by Anne Perry
4.0
Anne Perry's books tend to be multi-faceted. On one side is the main plot, the mystery, while on another is a look at a certain aspect of life at the time, another shows the lot of women, another contains introspection on the part of the main characters and still another reveals the depth of the supporting cast.
Here, the main plot is a devoted and kind husband who never returned from meeting his brother. His wife fears he is dead, and worse - that she'll never be able to prove it, and, being a woman, has no control or legal claim over any of her husband's property or money. She engages Monk to ascertain what has happened to Angus.
At the same time, typhoid has broken out in Limestone, one of the poverty-striken areas of London; naturally Hester is amongst the few from the higher classes who reach out to do what they can. As she explains the true nature of poverty, the reader also joins Enid's startling realization of what this level of poverty really means: "The same [pan] for scrubbing the floor, for bathing the baby, for waste at night, and for cooking in." It's no wonder typhoid spreads, especially in these days before clean water was readily available and before sewer pipes were installed.
Hester and Monk are, by now, both acutely aware of each other's fault. You might say overly aware, because they certainly seem to be trying to convince themselves of something, though his steadfast loyalty and Hester's quick thinking keep bringing them together to shore up the other. And then there is Drusilla...
Here, the main plot is a devoted and kind husband who never returned from meeting his brother. His wife fears he is dead, and worse - that she'll never be able to prove it, and, being a woman, has no control or legal claim over any of her husband's property or money. She engages Monk to ascertain what has happened to Angus.
At the same time, typhoid has broken out in Limestone, one of the poverty-striken areas of London; naturally Hester is amongst the few from the higher classes who reach out to do what they can. As she explains the true nature of poverty, the reader also joins Enid's startling realization of what this level of poverty really means: "The same [pan] for scrubbing the floor, for bathing the baby, for waste at night, and for cooking in." It's no wonder typhoid spreads, especially in these days before clean water was readily available and before sewer pipes were installed.
Hester and Monk are, by now, both acutely aware of each other's fault. You might say overly aware, because they certainly seem to be trying to convince themselves of something, though his steadfast loyalty and Hester's quick thinking keep bringing them together to shore up the other. And then there is Drusilla...