Weighed in the balance

Perry returns to Victorian England for another crime-solving adventure with detective William Monk and nurse Hester Latterly. This time the intrepid pair must discover who is responsible for the death of Prince Friedrich, one half of the greatest love story of the nineteenth century. The story begins dramatically with Countess Zorah Rostova sweeping into the office of barrister Oliver Rathbone asking that he defend her in a slander suit. She has accused Princess Gisela of murdering her husband, Prince Friedrich, and is now being sued by Gisela. Her defense, she tells Rathbone, will be truth--Gisela did kill him, although Zorah has no way to prove it. So begins a complicated story involving both unrest in a German principality and a storybook romance that takes more than a few details from the real-life story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. As usual, Perry gets readers immediately involved in the tale, and if the details of abdications and annexations are impediments to the narrative flow, they are neatly countered by larger-than-life characters and the compelling question of whodunit. Those who have followed amnesiac Detective Monk as he regains bits of his memory through six previous books will be happy to find a few more piece of the puzzle fall into place here; Monk's relationship with Hester, however, continues to be elusive, so stay tuned. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996)0449910784Ilene Cooper

Victorian amnesiac sleuth William Monk's seventh appearance has him working to clear Countess Zorah Rostova of murder charges. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Victorian sleuth William Monk investigates murder among royals in this latest in a best-selling series (e.g., Cain His Brother, Fawcett, 1995). (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Twelve years after middle-German Prince Friedrich abdicated his throne to marry Gisela Berentz, and four months after the Prince died following a fall from a horse, his intimate friend Countess Zorah Rostova retains Sir Oliver Rathbone, Q.C., to prove her innocent of a charge of slander. The Countess's proposed defense: What she said, publicly and repeatedly, was true--Princess Gisela really did murder her husband. Retaining inquiry agent William Monk (Cain His Brother, 1995, etc.) to gather evidence for the Countess's allegation, Sir Oliver soon finds that there is no evidence. By all accounts, the Prince and Princess were remarkably devoted to each other, and the rumors of a movement to return the Prince, unencumbered by the Princess his mother so disapproves of, to his throne and to a fight for independence from the surrounding states only points suspicion everywhere but toward the Princess. In fact, as Sir Oliver discovers when he's dragged into the Old Bailey, the evidence of fatal poisoning is far less strong against Princess Gisela than against his own client. It would be ironic if the key to the mystery lay with Robert Ollenheim, the paralyzed young patient of Hester Latterly, the nurse Monk cannot help loving--and a coincidence only Perry's most devoted fans will accept. Indefatigable Perry serves up as arresting an opening as ever--she may write the strongest first chapters in the business- -before miring her sleuths in endless dully civil conversations with titled nonentities and in a farcically incompetent trial that Sir Oliver should have tried even harder to avoid. (Mystery Guild main selection; author tour)

Victorian sleuth William Monk investigates murder among royals in this latest in a best-selling series (e.g., Cain His Brother, Fawcett, 1995). Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.

The byzantine politics and aristocratic squabbles of a small German principality called Felzburg exasperate and puzzle William Monk in his seventh distinctive appearance (after Cain His Brother). Monk, a Victorian-era "agent of inquiry," is still haunted by a baffling amnesia, and he feels that his associates?the rigidly proper barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone and the uncompromising and outspoken nurse Hester Latterly?have taken on more than they can handle when Sir Oliver decides to defend Countess Zorah Rostova against a slander charge. The patriotic Zorah has accused Princess Gisela of Felzburg of murdering her husband, Prince Friedrich, heir to the throne, who presumably had died as a result of a fall from a horse. Gisela is suing. The issue of slander is almost lost in all the politicking. Gisela and Friedrich had lived in English exile, Gisela having played a sort of Wallis Simpson role to Friedrich's Edward. But Friedrich dreamed of returning triumphant to Felzburg in order to defend the statelet's independence against the unifying tide of Germany. Zorah's defense requires that Monk polish his image, refine his abrasive nature and interview some devious, scheming?and perhaps murderous?aristocrats. Was Friedrich poisoned? Was Gisela the intended target? Who profits? Are personal or political motives dominant? Perry indulges her characters in a bit too much unproductive speculation, but the novel springs to life in the courtroom scenes, where careful investigation and astute teamwork produce some astonishing revelations that presage the end of Victorian propriety and an era's pretense of innocence. Major ad/promo; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.

Victorian amnesiac sleuth William Monk's seventh appearance has him working to clear Countess Zorah Rostova of murder charges. (Oct.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews