William Monk

24 primary works • 26 total works

The Face of a Stranger

by Anne Perry

Published 26 September 1990

He is not going to die, after all, in this Victorian pesthouse called a hospital. But the accident that felled him on a London street has left him with only half a life, because his memory and his entire past have vanished. His name, they tell him, is William Monk, and he is a London police detective; the mirror reflects a face that women woud like, but he senses he has been more feared than loved.
Monk is given a particularly sensational case: the brutal murder of Major the Honourable Joscelin Grey, Crimean war hero and a popular man about town, in his rooms in fashionable Mecklenburgh Square. It's an assignment to make or break an investigator, for the exalted status of the victim puts any representative of the police in the precarious position of having to pry into a noble family's secrets.
Suggesting that his superior, the wily Runcorn, hopes he will fail, Monk returns to a world where he cannot distinguish friend from foe. Grasping desperately for any clue to his own past and to the identity of the killer, each new revelation leads Monk step by terrifying step to the answers he seeks but dreads to find.

A Dangerous Mourning

by Anne Perry

Published 20 August 1991

No breath of scandal has ever touched the aristocratic Moidore family. London's wealthiest and most influential can often be found taking tea or dining in the opulent family mansion of Sir Basil Moidore in Queen Anne Street.

Now Sir Basil's beautiful widowed daughter has been stabbed to death in her own bed, a shocking and incomprehensible tragedy. Inspector William Monk is ordered to find her killer without delay - and in a manner that will give least pain to her family.

Handicapped by his inept supervisor and the lingering traces of amnesia, Monk gropes warily through the silence and shadows that obscure the case. But with the intelligent help of Hester Latterly, he begins to approach the astonishing solution, step by dangerous step.

Defend and Betray

by Anne Perry

Published 1 March 1993

After a brilliant military career, esteemed General Thaddeus Carlyon finally meets his death, not in the frenzy of battle but at an elegant London dinner party. His demise appears to be the result of a freak accident, but the general’s beautiful wife, Alexandra, readily confesses that she killed him–a story she clings to even under the threat of the noose.

Investigator William Monk, nurse Hester Latterly, and brilliant Oliver Rathbone, counsel for the defense, work feverishly to break down the wall of silence raised by the accused and her husband’s proud family. With the trial only days away, these there sleuths inch toward the dark and appalling heart of the mystery.

A Sudden, Fearful Death

by Anne Perry

Published 19 August 1993

Death might be commonplace in 1857 in the Royal Free Hospital in London's Gray's Inn Road, but murder certainly isn't. When the body of Prudence Barrymore, a gently bred, dedicated and passionate nurse, is discovered stuffed into a laundry chute no one - high born or low - can be beyond suspicion. But the police seem determined to concentrate their efforts on proving Dr Kristian Beck the culprit - because he is foreign. Concerned and unhappy with this state of affairs, Lady Callandra Daviot of the Board of Governers asks Investigator William Monk to pursue the case.
Monk, frustrated by the lingering traces of amnesia caused by an accident, agrees, and calls upon his old colleagues to aid him. Hester Latterly, an independent young woman who served with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, knew the dead woman there; Hester's profession provides the perfect cover for her to obtain work at the Royal Free. And Oliver Rathbone, a brilliant barrister, who is brought in as counsel for the defence. But under the ever-present shadow of the gallows, and inching towards the appalling solution, the three begin to despair of justice ever prevailing.

The Sins of the Wolf

by Anne Perry

Published 30 August 1994

When nurse Hestor Latterly accompanies the elderly Mrs Mary Farraline on a short trip to London, her only medical duty is to ensure her charming patient takes her heart medicine. But Mrs Farraline dies during the night. When her missing brooch 'turns up' in Hester's possession she is arrested for theft, until a post-mortem reveals a lethal dose of medicine in Mrs Farraline's body, and the charge becomes murder. Inspector William Monk must find a killer amongst the aloof Farraline clan, and in a Scottish courtroom the family's secrets will be exposed - or buried for ever.

Cain His Brother

by Anne Perry

Published 14 September 1995

Genvieve Stonefield's husband Angus is missing when she seeks William Monk's help to find him. She is convinced that he has been murdered by his twin brother Caleb, a shadowy figure who lives in the slums bordering the Thames and has always hated his respectable businessman brother. Although worried about Hester Latterly's health as she nurses victims of a typhoid outbreak in Limehouse, and threatened by a personal scandal, Monk is determined to bring one of the most bizarre cases he has ever encountered to its conclusion.

Weighed in the Balance

by Anne Perry

Published 4 July 1996

It's 1859 and throughout Europe tremendous upheavals have taken place. Hester Latterly is nurse to the sick son of a German Baron and his family, who have moved to London from one of the many small principalities between Prussia and Bavaria - and the Baroness tells Hester about her kingdom's famous royal family...
Handsome Prince Friedrich was one of just two heirs to the crown, considered the perfect match by every woman of the land. But during an affair with Countess Zorah Rostova, he meets the alluring and sophisticated Gisela - with whom he falls deeply in love. He can have Gisela or the crown, but not both. He chooses Gisela, marries her in Venice and, after many years, tragically dies in England.
Now, Countess Zorah, having accused the widowed Princess of murdering Friedrich, is being sued in the biggest slander trial of the century - and the only way that she can defend herself is to prove that Gisela is indeed guilty. But in doing so she must sully the greatest love story that the country has ever known, and that is enough to put her lawyer's career in jeopardy, too. That lawyer is Oliver Rathbone, who calls on Investigator William Monk to help...

The Silent Cry

by Anne Perry

Published 12 June 1997

In the dead of night in a notorious area of Victorian London's East End known as St Giles a factory girl stumbles over the bloody bodies of two City gentlemen. When Detective John Evan finally arrives at the scene, he is confronted by a most difficult investigation. First he must identify the men. Then he must find out why men of means and social standing would go to such a sordid area. Most importantly, who are their assailants? And how could they escape unharmed and unnoticed?
Mercifully the younger victim is not quite dead. Having sustained terrible internal injuries, he's later released home from hospital severely traumatised and unable to speak - to be told that the other victim, his father, is dead, and Hester Latterly has been employed to help nurse him back to full recovery.
With too many obstacles impeding his progress, Evan finally enlists the aid of his old friend, William Monk, who, together with Hester's help, must unravel one of his most complex and shocking cases yet.

A Breach of Promise

by Anne Perry

Published 14 September 1998

A man in Victorian England who was accused of breaking a promise of marriage commits suicide. The man denied the charge, claiming he could not possibly marry the woman, rich and beautiful though she was. Why not? PI William Monk wants to find out.

The Twisted Root

by Anne Perry

Published 1 October 1999

For Miriam Gardiner, at her engagement party at the London home of her fiance, Lucius Stourbridge, it should have been one of the happiest days of her life. But, leaving suddenly, Miriam disappears without a trace. Reluctant to cause a scandal, Lucius seeks out William Monk and tells him that the only lead concerns their coachman, Treadwell, who is also missing. Monk, not usually a sentimental man, is moved by Lucius's distress, and assumes that his recent marriage to Hester Latterly is to blame. When Treadwell's murdered body is found, Monk becomes convinced that his death is linked to a terrible secret in Miriam's past that someone, desperate keep it hidden, has killed for, and may well do so again, unless he can stop them.

Slaves of Obsession

by Anne Perry

Published 3 October 2000

The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet investigator William Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence. For two of the guests are Americans, each vying to buy Alberton’s armaments. Soon Monk and Hester’s forebodings are fulfilled as one member of the party is brutally murdered and two others disappear— along with Alberton’s entire inventory of weapons. As Monk and Hester track the man they believe to be the murderer all the way to Washington, D.C., and the bloody battlefield at Manassas, Slaves of Obsession twists and turns like a powder-keg fuse and holds the reader breathless and spellbound.

A Funeral in Blue

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2001

When her brother arrives on her doorstep, Hester Monk is shocked - as much by the unexpectedness of the visit as by the reason for it. For since her marriage to Monk, Charles and his elegant wife, Imogen, have kept their distance. But now Charles needs Hester's help. He believes Imogen is having an affair - there can be no other explanation for her recent strange behaviour. However, before Hester is able to investigate, a tragedy occurs. In a nearby artist's studio two women have been brutally killed. Having left the police force with extreme ill feeling between himself and his superior, the last thing Monk wants to do is face the demons of his past. But, in the course of his work, Monk is left with no choice but to visit his old adversary, Runcorn, and involve himself with the sensational murder case.

Death of a Stranger

by Anne Perry

Published 1 October 2002

Hester Monk's voluntary work in Coldbath Square is increasingly demanding. Every night she tends to a stream of women of the streets who have been injured or become ill as a result of their trade. But the injuries are becoming more serious, and now a body has been discovered in one of the area's brothels. The dead man is none other than the wealthy and respectable Nolan Baltimore, head of Baltimore and Sons, a successful railway company. With calls for the police to clean up the streets, Hester decides she must intervene to protect these women who stand to lose everything. Meanwhile her husband, William Monk, has been approached by Katrina Harcus, who suspects that the company her fiance works for may be guilty of fraud. That company is Baltimore and Sons. As Monk endeavours to prevent a serious crime, possibly even a tragedy, taking place, he faces some staggering revelations. And with the link between the two cases becoming ever clearer, Monk finds that the time has come to confront his own demons - even if it means losing all that he now holds dear...

The Shifting Tide

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2004

Another title featuring detective William Monk.

Dark Assassin

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2006

The two figures had been on the bridge. He had grasped hold of her. To save her, or to push her? Murder, suicide or accident? Inspector William Monk of the Thames River Police watches helplessly as the man and woman fall to their deaths. Still feeling his way in a new post, Monk knows he must solve the mystery to gain the respect of his men. Soon both he and Hester find themselves powerfully involved in the story of the dead woman, Mary Havilland, and her quest to vindicate her father. Two months previously, James Havilland had been found dead. An engineer working for the Argyll Construction Company, he was convinced that a major disaster was about to happen in the tunnels where London's desperately needed new sewer system was being built. Maddened by his obsession, he'd apparently shot himself. Mary had never accepted that. And now she was dead too. Was it chance or more sinister than that?

Execution Dock

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2009

Once again, Inspector William Monk, now of the Thames River Police, must face a dangerous foe. It's 1864, and after a game of cat and mouse, Monk has captured Jericho Phillips, the man he suspects of brutally killing a young mudlark and running an evil child prostitution ring. In bringing Phillips to justice, Monk hopes to close down the ring and avenge the memory of Durban, his old commander, who was determined to capture Philips. However at trial justice does not prevail. Oliver Rathbone, Monk's friend, is hired anonymously to represent the accused and when he proves that vital evidence is missing, Phillips is freed. As Monk begins the investigation again, venturing deeper into London's murky underworld, he realises that Durban may have had his own reasons for pursuing Phillips, and shockingly, that secret support for Phillips may reach further into civilised society than anyone could ever have imagined...

Acceptable Loss

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2011

As a past case returns to haunt Monk, can he find justice for the innocent?

Inspector William Monk once again faces a dangerous foe in Acceptable Loss, the seventeenth novel in Anne Perry's acclaimed series. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Ann Granger.

'[An Anne Perry novel can] take us away to the far reaches of our imaginations, to a place and a time about which we can only dream... We see the gaslight, we feel the fog, and in Perry's latest, Acceptable Loss, we experience the horror of murder, blackmail and sordid crime, as well as the shining victory of heroic sacrifice and personal courage' - Asbury Park Press

In 1864, Monk and his wife Hester are doing their best to care for Scuff, a homeless boy recovering from a terrifying ordeal at the hands of Jericho Phillips, the runner of a child prostitution ring. Although Scuff's evil abductor is dead, there is no suggestion that the ring has been broken and Scuff is certain that more children are suffering an even worse fate.

Monk is determined to find the remaining children and uncover the men funding the operation. And when the body of small-time crook Mickey Parfitt washes up on Mortlake's shore, it fortuitously points him in the right direction. But as Monk's investigation continues, the reputations of respected gentlemen start being called into question and his task becomes fraught with unforeseen dangers. In an illicit world of blackmail, vice and corruption, Monk must follow the trail - and his conscience - wherever it leads, no matter how disturbing the truth may be.

What readers are saying about Acceptable Loss:

'There is no one who better captures the Victorian period. From the homes of the wealthy, to the lowest, meanest parts of London, [Anne Perry] creates a fully-realised world'

'A riveting mystery wrapped up in the dark and seedy side of Victorian London'

'Anne Perry is the best Victorian crime [writer] I have ever read'

A Sunless Sea

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2012

Can Monk uncover the truth behind a deadly opium conspiracy? 1864 and on the bank of the Thames, Monk is appalled at the shocking mutilation visited upon the body of a woman found on Limehouse Pier. But when enquiries into the brutal killing unearth a connection between the victim and Dr Lambourn, a brilliant, recently deceased scientist and staunch supporter for a new pharmaceutical bill aimed to regulate the sale of opium, it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. Lambourn's widow refuses to believe the official verdict that her husband's death was suicide; she is convinced that he was murdered after the research he was conducting was discredited by government officials intent on keeping the lucrative trade of opium flowing. With pressure mounting for the river police to find the Limehouse killer, Monk is propelled headlong into an investigation that will delve into the darkest depths of the opium trade and threaten to expose corruption in the very highest echelons of society ...

Blind Justice

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2013

If protecting the innocent means breaking the law, what is the right choice to make?

Inspector William Monk searches for the elusive truth in a controversial and dangerous case in Blind Justice, the nineteenth novel in Anne Perry's acclaimed series. Perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Arthur Conan Doyle.

'A staggering achievement... Perry's command of plot and prose shines' - Bookreporter

Oliver Rathbone, William Monk's close friend, has presided brilliantly over his first cases as a judge. But the next will bring a far greater challenge. Abel Taft, a charismatic minister adored by his congregation, stands accused of terrible corruption and fraud which has ruined the lives of those he's betrayed.

In court, each victim affirms Taft's guilt, but when the defence's star witness tears their stories apart, the case seems lost. Rathbone realises he holds, locked away, a piece of evidence that could change the outcome of the trial and bring true justice, but can he, as the judge, become involved? The decision Rathbone makes will draw Monk deep into a dangerous case that will shape the rest of both their lives...

Winner of the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical Novel 2014.

What readers are saying about Blind Justice:

'I have found Anne Perry to be one of the best writers I have read. Her books are very atmospheric and I feel that I am actually in Victorian London'

'A riveting mystery wrapped up in the dark and seedy side of Victorian London'

'Anne Perry is the best Victorian crime [writer] I have ever read'

Blood on the Water

by Anne Perry

Published 1 January 2014

London, 1856. It is a time of progress, with the Empire's interests expanding and the Suez Canal nearing completion. Many people stand to gain - and to lose - as the world rapidly changes.
When a Thames pleasure boat is blown up with the loss of many lives, an Egyptian man is quickly sentenced to hang for the crime. But William Monk, head of the River Police, discovers the evidence was flawed. As he and his wife Hester investigate further, Monk begins to wonder if the wrong man was convicted. If justice itself has been tainted, exposing the true culprit will be far more hazardous...