The Twisted Root: A William Monk Mystery - Hardcover

Perry, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345433254 ISBN 13: 9780345433251

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1999

Synopsis

In a stunning feat of the imagination, Anne Perry encloses readers within the magic circle of her genius and brings to life the lost world of England's Victorian Age. Hoofbeats clatter on cobblestones, gaslight glimmers through fog, and in the exclusive privacy of elegant drawing rooms, powerful men and women once again live the splendor and shame of that matchless era. With The Twisted Root, Perry holds us rapt with a chilling story of love, betrayal, and consummate evil.

As private investigator William Monk listens to young Lucius Stourbridge plead for help in tracking down his runaway fiancée, he feels a sense of heavy foreboding. Miriam Gardiner disappeared suddenly from a croquet party at the luxurious Bayswater mansion of her in-laws-to-be, and has not been seen since. But on Hampstead Heath, Monk finds the coach in which Miriam had fled and, nearby, the murdered body of the coachman. There is no trace of Miriam.

What strange compulsion could have driven the beautiful widow to abandon the prospect of a loving marriage and financial abundance? Monk's attempt to answer that question proves a challenge, as Miriam Gardiner's fateful flight ends in a packed London courtroom where brilliant barrister Oliver Rathbone wages an uphill battle to absolve her from a charge of murder. And in a race with the hangman, Monk and clever nurse Hester Latterly--themselves now newlyweds--desperately pursue the elusive truth . . . and an unknown killer whose malign brilliance they have scarcely begun to fathom.

About this title

About the Author

Among Anne Perry's other novels featuring investigator William Monk are The Silent Cry, Cain His Brother, Defend and Betray, Weighed in the Balance, and most recently A Breach of Promise. She also writes the popular novels featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, including Bedford Square, Pentecost Alley, Traitors Gate, The Hyde Park Headsman, Highgate Rise, and Ashworth Hall, which was a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. "Her grasp of Victorian character and conscience still astonishes," said The Cleveland Plain Dealer about the author. Hundreds of thousands of readers agree. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.

From the Inside Flap

g feat of the imagination, Anne Perry encloses readers within the magic circle of her genius and brings to life the lost world of England's Victorian Age. Hoofbeats clatter on cobblestones, gaslight glimmers through fog, and in the exclusive privacy of elegant drawing rooms, powerful men and women once again live the splendor and shame of that matchless era. With The Twisted Root, Perry holds us rapt with a chilling story of love, betrayal, and consummate evil.

As private investigator William Monk listens to young Lucius Stourbridge plead for help in tracking down his runaway fiancée, he feels a sense of heavy foreboding. Miriam Gardiner disappeared suddenly from a croquet party at the luxurious Bayswater mansion of her in-laws-to-be, and has not been seen since. But on Hampstead Heath, Monk finds the coach in which Miriam had fled and, nearby, the murdered body of the coachman. There is no trace of Miriam.

What strange compulsion could have driven the beautiful widow to

Reviews

In this 10th entry in the popular series featuring prickly English investigator William Monk and his equally prickly bride, nurse Hester Latterly (A Breach of Promise, etc.), Perry mulls over the moral justification of criminal acts. Just back from his honeymoon in the summer of 1860, Monk tries to locate Mrs. Miriam Gardiner, a comely widow who inexplicably fled in a coach from her wealthy young fianc?'s home. Monk's search takes him to Hampstead Heath, where the coachman's body is foundAmurdered, he deduces, by a single blow to the head. Could Miriam have struck that deadly blow as she fled, and if so, why? Cornered at last, Miriam refuses to explain her behavior or implicate the coachman's murderer, even though Monk suspects she's the victim of some atrocity. Meanwhile, Hester gears up to defend Cleo Anderson, a saintly nurse who admits to filching hospital supplies to treat impoverished war veterans. Plot mechanics grind away as Perry strains to connect the two crimes, resolving matters with an ending that reads like Henry Fielding without the laughs. Fans of earlier Monk and Latterly mysteries may enjoy Perry's sometimes overwrought depiction of the two-career couple negotiating who cooks supper, but the many other anachronisms just don't wash (says Hester's colleague: "you want to have nurses visit the poor in their homes? You are fifty years before your time"). Despite the characters' tendency to sermonize self-righteously, Perry's theme is the hazy nature of guiltAa topic sure to intrigue those who've followed her career. For thrills, however, readers should turn to other books in the series. Mystery Guild selection; Random House audio. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Now that he's savoring the joys of marriage to unlicensed nurse Hester Latterly, enquiry agent William Monk (A Breach of Promise, 1998, etc.) is all the quicker to feel the distress of Lucius Stourbridge, whose fiance, bewitching widow Miriam Gardiner, vanished from the middle of a croquet match at the Stourbridge home in Cleveland Square. And when James Treadwell, the Stourbridge coachman who carried the lady off at her request, is found murdered near Hampstead Heath, Miriam's peril is only deepened: she's arrested for his murder. Nor does Hester's own subplot offer any relief, since her investigation into the disappearance of anaesthetic medicines from North London Hospital leads her straight to the woman the police will call Miriam's conspirator. Even after a second shocking murder whose motives remain stubbornly obscure, the facts of the case seem simple and damning, and Monk's friend (and Hester's former suitor) Sir Oliver Rathbone, stonewalled by his silent clients, accepts the defense brief without a clue how to proceed. But Perrythough her main mission, as usual, is to criticize the 19th century by showing how much more enlightened the 20th is about medical standards, veterans' rights, and the endless duel over the status of womenmanages a climactic thunderbolt that will leave even her most loyal fans gasping. What fearful secret could lead Miriam to prefer trial and execution to telling her story? No writer since Agatha Christie has been so good at teasing her audience with such obvious questions until choosing to ring down the curtain. (Mystery Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This is the tenth William Monk mystery by the prolific and talented Perry. A beautiful widow named Miriam Gardiner has disappeared, leaving behind a distraught fianc? and a dead coachman. Monk is called in to find Gardiner and then must uncover the truth when she is charged with murdering the coachman. Oliver Rathbone agrees to represent her, but she refuses to defend herself. Whose secret is she willing to die to protect? A compelling subplot involving Hester, Monk's wife, and a dying war veteran adds emotional depth to the story. Perry sticks to her proven formula: a desperate and impassioned effort to save someone who is wrongfully accused. There is strong characterization, particularly of the newly married Monk and Hester. Not Perry's best, but still highly recommended for all public libraries.
-ALaurel Bliss, New Haven, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Perry's methodical "agent of inquiry" William Monk is back in another historical puzzler set in Victorian England. More comfortable now with his status as an independent investigator and mellowed somewhat by his recent marriage to nurse Hester Latterly, Monk takes on the troubling challenge of finding Miriam Gardiner, who disappeared from a garden party at the home of her wealthy, much younger fiance, Lucius Stourbridge. Lucius wants her back, even after the coachman who drove her away turns up dead and Miriam is accused of the crime. In the meantime, Monk's beloved Hester, who has some investigative credentials of her own, is quietly searching for the thief who is raiding hospital medicine stores, adjusting to her new marriage, and crusading for hospital reforms. The tangents dovetail neatly, with Perry delivering her usual leisurely paced story suffused with period details, many of which focus on the conventions of gender and class that so marked the times. What's best, however, is the denouement, when the guilty party and the meaning of the title are dramatically unveiled in a packed London courtroom. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0345433254
• ISBN 13: 9780345433251
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352