The latest in the William and Hester Monk series involves the brutal murder of a Hungarian immigrant. It is decidedly vicious in nature, something for the most part, still unheard of in Victorian England. So begins the story An Echo of Murder, by Anne Perry, which is a look into the world of immigrant London, and the mentality of post Crimean War England.

Read the entire review at https://journalingonpaper.com/2017/09/04/book-review-an-echo-of-murder-by-anne-perry/

I am a big William Monk fan. It always amazes me how police were able to solve crimes in the Victoria Era, or another era per se. I love how Ms. Perry, as Charles Dickens before her, tries to blend history, human suffering, and social conditions in the Monk series.

It doesn't matter what era we live in, the Upper crust always thinks they are above the law. And have contempt for police and even a bigger contempt if one of their own is implicated in a murder.

Having come into An Echo of Murder: A William Monk Novel by well-established author Anne Perry, I knew I'd missed something important when there were references to Mr. Monk's amnesia.

In this offering, there is an appalling series of murders of London's Hungarian citizens. Hester Monk, his wife, certainly his equal and perhaps then some, has a strong history with the Crimean War in which she attended front line casualties. The end of the war precipitated an influx of alien citizens looking for safety.

I enjoy Victorian London stories, and though this one was decidedly dark, definitely imparted the feel, the sights and smells of the historical city. It also addressed the animosity of long time citizens to new people, new ideas, and the sense of some loss.

Commander Monk and Hester have taken in a homeless urchin, Scuff, who is now working at Crow's medical clinic on his way to becoming a doctor. This entry fleshes out Scuff as he is growing and coming in to his own. Enter Dr. Fitzherbert, an old war colleague of Hester. He has retired from practicing medicine, which is just as well, as he suffers big time from PTSD, but speaks fluent Hungarian. Hester is haunted by the last time she saw him on the battlefield, sure he was dead, and left to help those she thought better candidates for immediate medical attention.

Really, the riddle here, for me being a first-time reader of both Anne Perry and her William Monk series, was the protagonist. Basically, he seemed to take a lesser role, but showing up to a new murder, ineffective until in a flash of brilliance managed to solve the mystery.

The point at which medicine had evolved during the period is discussed and viewed with equal amounts of advances in humane treatment (many gained through experience in the American Civil War) and the practice of poultices and herbs. Descriptions of treatment definitely had the nerves tingling and I'm sure took some major research.

Slow built-up to climax, arguments and theories repeated, prejudices explored (basically unchanged), and historical London and insights into the medical community keep the reader turning pages. I was offered this download by Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Books and NetGalley and greatly appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Recommended for fans of historical fiction, mystery, thriller, or suspense.

Commander Monk finds himself investigating yet another gruesome crime scene in Victorian London, a community that finds itself divided and challenged by its own diversity.

I have read Anne Perry for more than 20 years. I like the William Monk series although the Thomas Pitt one is my favorite. This is the 23rd book in the series about the Thames River Police Commander and his wife, Hester, a former Crimean War nurse and Florence Nightingale protege. They have taken in a young homeless boy, Scuff, who is now studying medicine and working at a medical clinic.

A Hungarian is found brutally murdered and Monk is called in as the body was found in a building by the River. He immediately gets help from the young pharmacist, Dobokai, who discovered the body to do translations in the Hungarian community. Apparently Hungarians are viewed with suspicion and dislike as foreigners who are there to take people's jobs. Sound familiar? I guess there is always someone to dislike and hate. Then there are more murders done in the same horrific manner and the police believe it's the same killer.

Hester meanwhile is helping out at the clinic where Scuff works and there is an arm amputation and a man with a horrible tetanus infection. The treatment seems barbaric until you learned that medical knowledge has gotten better with things learned in the Civil War. And just when you think nothing good comes out of war, you learn it improves medicine. Hester also has reunions with a doctor who worked with her in the Crimean War and her estranged brother.

The plot is rather weak and stuffed with scene after scene of battlefields in the Crimean War. It was an overkill. The motive for the murders turns out to be slightly improbable. It was not my favorite entry in the series.

Thanks to Net Galley for a preview of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I always look forward to the next Anne Perry Monk or Pitt book. I've read every one of both series - in order. The new Monk book, "An Echo of Murder," continues the Monk tradition of a darker series, and maybe that's why I like Monk better. Perry's descriptions of the dark side of Victorian London are always engrossing, painting a vivid picture of London's dank riverside. Her characters are well developed and intriguing. Unfortunately, what makes this book, and her last couple of books as well, lesss than excellent is the sudden and last minute deus ex machina. As I finished the book I was left with the feeling that Ms. Perry got to a point where she decided that "I've written enough but I need to finish up now". Although this won't stop me from reading any new books in either series, I ended my my Victorian journey a bit disappointed. I would give this 3 1/2 stars. (if I knew how to do it below.)

I love Monk! He is my favorite character. Very strong, yet vulnerable. An Echo of Murder was one Ms. Perry's better ones. I so enjoy her insight into Victorian England. The class structure, Hester and Monk's relationship is so interesting to watch. Good storyline. Really enjoyed it!

This latest historical mystery from Anne Perry features truly shocking murders which appear to have a ritualistic aspect, bringing religious and racial prejudice to the fore, and a community that closes against even well-meaning outsiders. Monk must partner with an interpreter - of the spoken and unspoken languages of the Hungarian community - but can he trust the translator while he investigates what appears to be either a random lunatic or a ritualistic killer?

While Monk struggles with the horrific crimes and growing condemnation from the newspapers, Scuff, now apprenticing with Crow, is learning what it takes to be a doctor for the people, and those lessons are none too easy. Hester, of course, is helping Monk whether he wants her help or not, and her assistance and insight prove invaluable. The final resolution is as surprising and nuanced as regular readers have grown to expect. You won't be disappointed.

(There's also a small tie-in with one of the Christmas novellas, A Christmas Escape.)

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this latest installment of Anne Perry's William Monk series, she continues to show her skill at world building. There's no doubt but that she knows the Victorian age, and her descriptions are fairly light-handed so that the reader doesn't feel like a history lesson is being shoe-horned into a story. The details that are there feel natural and necessary to create the setting.
This mystery centers on the Hungarian community in London, several members of which are being violently struck down. For much of the novel, Monk is stymied as to what the motivation could even be, let alone who the culprit is. Because the investigation stalls continually, when the denouement finally does come, it feels rather rushed.
Perry's main characters all have a habit of lengthy introspection, which sometimes breaks up the narrative and makes each and every moment seem a little too deliberate. One gets the sense that these people are unable to live life one day to the next, because each action carries with it a flood of memories. However, in this novel, it works a little better than in some of the others, because a new character is obviously suffering with PTSD.
One of the up-and-coming characters who is getting a bit more notice in this book is Scuff, a/k/a Will, the orphan boy adopted by William and Hester Monk. He's now grown to about age 18 and is studying medicine. His development and medical training are among the more interesting aspects of the novel.
Overall, I found this a pretty easy read, with prose that let me move along and not get bogged down. One of the better of Anne Perry's novels to date!

The master of the mystery does it again in this page turner in her William Monk series. We see the results of the Crimean War on a doctor and his nurse - Hester, Monk's wife. Hungarians are being murdered. The doctor is having horrendous nightmares, and at times walks as if in a stupor. Is he the killer? In the meantime, the doctor is helping some of Crow's patients, with the help of Will, i.e. an amputation and a case of tetanus. We get to read these details of the medical procedures from the 1870s. The doctor ends up getting arrested for the murders, and the case goes to trial. I was on pins and needles to see how this was going to turn out, and you will be, too.

This book is very focused in Monk, then Hester and Scif in about equal measure. Oliver only comes into it at the very end this book deals significantly with prejudice and the mental effects war can have on people. The Monk series has been my favorite Perry series.

The murder of a Hungarian man whose shop faces the river brings Monk and his Thames River force to the scene. The crime is horrific--extremely violent, an act of hate--and accompanied by 17 candles, two of which are purple, and the smashing of Roman Catholic icons. A man, aspiring to be the leader of the Hungarian community in London, is first on the scene. His alibi is airtight. The man is very observant. Communicating with the Hungarian population is problematic.

Monk and Hester's adopted son "Scuff" is apprenticed to a doctor, coming in contact with Fitz, a doctor who served with Hester in Crimea. As the body count grows, the pressure to locate the perpetrator increases due to the growing unrest of the Hungarian community.

I do not read every installment of the Monk series, but I enjoyed this one very much. While any experienced mystery reader will be able to predict some of the action, certain aspects of this installment will keep readers interested. It held my attention--something most books failed to do recently.

I received an advance review copy from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

In this latest Anne Perry mystery, Victorian-era Thames River officer William Monk is called to the scene of a particularly brutal murder in an area of London where Hungarian immigrants live: the victim was stabbed, his fingers mutilated, and seventeen candles, some of them a rare purple color, were scattered around the murder site, their tips dipped in blood. Most of the people in the neighborhood do not speak English and a learned man who lives nearby agrees to help Monk by translating for him. Ugly rumors start arising from the surrounding community, that the Hungarians are aliens who practice bloody rituals. Even Monk is baffled, unable to understand what caused such hatred.

In the meantime, the Monks' adopted son "Scuff"—who asks to be known as "Will" after his adopted father—is working as an apprentice to Crow, a slum doctor who sometimes treats the Hungarians. Out of nowhere, an English doctor who calls himself Fitz comes to Crow's assistance with an amputation case—and it turns out he served in the Crimea and was friends with Hester Monk, who thought he died on the battlefield. Fitz is still badly shell-shocked and sometimes has no memory of events; could he be the murderer?

Monk takes a little bit of a back burner in this latest in the series even as he doggedly pursues clues as more murders with the same grim pattern happens; the novel more revolves around Hester Latterly Monk, her re-acquaintance with Herbert Fitzherbert and facing up to the privations and horrors she endured as a nurse in the Crimean War, and her making peace with her brother Charles, and also with Scuff, who is less a mudlark and more a young man every day, one who is getting good experience in the medical profession. He decides that he will use the name "Will" as an adult and plays a part in discovering who committed the murders. It's a nice change of pace to see the story revolve around Hester and Will, even though in the end it's Monk who makes the final connection that brings the murderer to justice.

I would like to thank NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for for a review. When a Hungarian warehouse owner is murdered, Commander Monk of the Thames River Police is called to the scene. The victim was viciously stabbed and seventeen candles dipped in his blood surrounded his body. Monk is hampered by his inability to communicate with the Hungarian community and residents who are wary of the police. When another body turns up surrounded by seventeen candles, he questions whether they are dealing with a secret society or one madman.

While Monk deals with the murders, his wife Hester discovers that a doctor she befriended while nursing in the Crimean War has returned to London. Left for dead on the battlefields, he recovered and spent time in Hungary. His knowledge of the language and the community and his spells of post traumatic stress that he still suffers from the war make him a prime suspect.

This is an historical mystery that explores issues that are relevant today. The difficulties faced by an immigrant community and the mental and physical problems faced by a war veteran are handled by Monk and Hester with understanding and compassion. As anxiety grows and crowds become hostile, an arrest is made and the ensuing trial reveals a stunning conclusion. This is Anne Perry at her finest.

The William and Hester Monk series by Anne Perry is one of my favorite historical mystery series. Each new release piques my interest, and I downloaded An Echo of Murder as soon as it was offered.

William Monk is an enigma. In the The Face of a Stranger, the first novel in the series, he awakes in a hospital bed with amnesia. He learns his own name only by a visit from someone who knows him, but hides his complete loss of memory of his past. What he does learn fairly quickly is that he was a policeman; however, what he learns about the sort of man he was--doesn't present a flattering picture.

Over the many novels since then, Monk has continued to learn more about himself, has met and married Hester Latterly, and has had some career changes, all involved with investigating murder; he is currently the Commander of the Thames River Police.

Hester Latterly Monk served in the Crimea under Florence Nightengale. She, too, has had several changes in her nursing career, but she is dedicated to medicine and to serving those who can least afford care. Intelligent, outspoken, and courageous, Hester is the kind of woman who precipitated change in the roles of women during the Victorian Era, and along with Nightengale, Hester was outraged and critical of those in charge of the disastrous Crimean War.

Both characters have an innate sense of justice, and Perry uses both of them to explore social and political issues of the time. One of my favorites was a mystery involving some of the first experiments with blood transfusions.

An Echo of Murder deals with a horrific series of murders against members of the Hungarian immigrant population in London; the "echo" is relevant to present opinions and treatment of immigrants, a problem that has always existed. Those who are different have difficulties in their attempts to maintain their own histories and culture and to assimilate into a new society.

Aside from Monk and Hester, there are a number of recurring characters that make their appearance. Perry does a fine job with characterization, plot, and addressing the kind of social issues that never go away, and An Echo of Murder

Read in June; blog review scheduled for Sept. 4

NetGalley/Random House/ Ballentine

Historical Mystery. Sept. 19, 2017. Print length: 320 pages.

I love this series series. I like that the characters have their good points as well as their failings. I am always happy to see Oliver Rathbone appear in the story but the convention of the trial and last minute solving of the murder and release of the prisoner is getting tiresome to me. Not that I could write it better - I just feel like I'd like to see a different twist at the end.

With some authors I say I grew up reading, other authors I say I grew old reading. Anne Perry is one of the latter since I have been reading her for more than 25 years. Proof positive that she writes some outstanding mysteries.
The twenty third outing of Commander William Monk and his wife Hester is no exception.
A man is horribly murdered in the Hungarian community of London. To add to the horror, there are aspects of ritualism to this murder and to the three that quickly follow. This book takes place years before Jack the Ripper and the idea of serial killers was almost unknown to the police.
The Monks' ward, Scuff-now to be known as Will-is studying to be a doctor at the side of another doctor, Crow. Another doctor, Fitz Fitzherbert, conversant in Hungarian is brought in to translate in a difficult case for Crow. Scuff quickly discovers Fitzherbert was someone quite close to Hester Monk from her days as a battlefield nurse in the Crimea.
Dr. Fitzherbert is suffering from severe PTSD and due to memory loss is eventually arrested by Monk. Monk arrests him to save his life because he became a target of the terrified Hungarian community and was barely able to escape a maddened crowd.
Once again Perry addresses several themes that translate from 1870, the fear of 'the other', from both sides. After the murders, the Hungarians become terrified of the British, in the meantime the British openly express their fear of losing jobs and culture to the small community of Hungarians.
Perry also writes most movingly about the horrors of war and with anger of the bungling of those who wage war. She also writes in this book of the aftermath, suffered both by Hester Monk, and to a greater degree, by Dr. Fitzherbert.
Perry astounds with her horrifying description how conditions such as lockjaw and amputation are addressed back in the days of little in the way of pain relief.
Perry does a good job writing about the background of Monk and Hester, but I don't think she does a very good job explaining why there is such a rift between Hester and her brother.
Also when it comes down to it, I wasn't impressed with the motive for the the killings.
As always Perry writes moving stories with characters who fascinate. Her settings star, she does not pretty up Victorian England and Perry shows it in it's massive ugliness, poverty and despair.
I think of Perry as the doyenne of Victorian historical mysteries, she sets and keeps the bar high.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Murder mysteries that take place in 19th and early 20th century England are some of my favorites, so when I saw this one available on NetGalley, I thought I’d give it a shot. I didn’t realize it is #23 in the William Monk series by Anne Perry, although I do recall having read one or two of the earlier entries, and have read Perry’s Thomas Pitt series.

There are Readers out there who, for a number of reasons, will absolutely not read a series out of order.

I am not one of them.

For me, a *good* series is successful often because of the meticulous world-building the author performs, but a *great* series is written in a way that you can dip in and out of the author’s world. That is what I found here, with Commander William Monk, his wife Hester, and “son” Will. Perry provides just enough detail about past history of the characters as is necessary for *this* story. She doesn’t give away plot lines of earlier stories, so I can go back and read those without knowing how they end. The plot is the key, the characters’ past is incidental.

Perry offers an interesting plot in Echo of Murder. Monk is called to investigate an horrific crime committed against a member of the Hungarian community. It is violent, the product of extreme rage. At the same time, Will (also known as Scuff), meets an old friend of Hester’s, a surgeon with whom she served in the Crimean War and who is now suffering from what today we would call a severe case of PTSD. As Monk conducts his investigation into the murder and moves deep into the Hungarian community, his path crosses with Will’s and Fitz, the Crimean surgeon, neatly braiding their stories together into a clever and neat climax.

Perry’s writing is top notch, as always. I did feel as though she used the xenophobia directed at the Hungarians as a bit of a soapbox regarding immigration, and I found the end to be rushed, but otherwise this is a solid entry into a much loved series that makes me want to go back and read the earlier Monk books. Recommended.

I have been reading books by Anne Perry since "The Cater Street Hangman," so a new book in any Anne Perry series is something I look forward to. I found this book to be superb; truly one of her best. Old readers are rewarded with back story about Hester and her brother as well as her past friendship with a doctor with whom she served in the Crimean war. The story resonates both in its time and today, as many continue to fear and distrust anyone who is different. This novel can be read by readers new to the series as well as long term devotees. I was sad when I turned to the last page and will definitely be eagerly awaiting Anne Perry's next novel!

5 Stars

Commander Monk and DS Hooper are called to the scene of a horrific murder. Imrus Fodor has been stabbed through the heart with a bayonet and his fingers broken along with additional mutilations. It was done with intense rage or hatred. Fodor didn’t either have the chance to defend himself or was taken by surprise. He was killed at his place of work.

Since Fodor was Hungarian the local community mistrusts the police officers and many don’t speak English very well. Monk and Hooper ask for the assistance of Antal Dobokai, a local pharmacist who discovered the body. Although Monk does not like the man, he needs his help.

When they interview various witnesses and acquaintances, Monk realizes just how difficult this case is. Bigotry and fear of the other play a big part in this novel. Monk must step carefully. When more people are murdered in the same way as Fodor, the suspense and fear escalate.

Hester is treating a man who may know something about the victims, but he is very traumatized and Hester and Monk must be careful.

This book is extremely well written and plotted, as are all of Anne Perry’s books. The suspense starts immediately with a brutal murder and doesn’t let up until the denouement and the killer is caught. I like the way the author interjects domestic scenes with Monk’s wife Hester and how she assists him with his cases. I truly enjoy reading both the Monk and Pitt stories that Ms. Perry writes.

I want to send a big thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine/Ballantine for forwarding to me a copy of this most wonderful novel for me to read.