William Monk,
Commander of the Thames River Police, is approached by Harry Exeter
to assist him in paying the ransom for his kidnapped wife, Kate. Monk
feels a strong attachment to Exeter’s distress because of his wife
Hester’s kidnapping.
Exeter has raised a
huge sum of money to pay off the kidnappers who are holding Kate in a
dangerous slum on the river, Jacob’s Island. Monk selects his best
men to accompany them to the drop spot. From the time they land at
Jacob’s Island everything goes wrong. Monk and his men are
attacked, the kidnappers take the money, but all is in vain because
Kate is dead.
One of the main
themes of the book is the distress among Monk and his men that one of
them betrayed the exercise. A great deal is made of the necessity for
trust among a group of men who work together in dangerous
circumstances. Another less obvious theme is the lack of respect for
women’s intellectual gifts. Monk has great respect for Harriet, but
the other men distrust the word of a woman, and it hampers the
investigation.
This is not my
favorite Monk novel. The descriptions of Victorian London are
excellent, but the detective work is not up to par. Perry excuses
this because Monk empathizes with Exeter so completely. I became
bored with the constant worry about who had betrayed Monk’s men
when the clues they should have been following seemed so obvious.
If you’re a Monk
fan, you may enjoy this book, but I can’t recommend it for your
first Monk adventure.
I received this book
from Net Galley for this review.
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