Book Review--Dark Assassin by Anne Perry

Dark Assassin is indeed too “Dark”

Dark Assassin is the eighth of Anne Perry’s William Monk series books I have read.  I am also posting my review of “The Sunless Sea”—my number nine.

Anne Perry is a wonderful writer.  I am amazed at her depth of knowledge, her large vocabulary, her writing ability and her prolific writing history.  Her books are always worthwhile and a good read.

(Here comes the however) however, as I grow older and see more of the dark and sinister things of our world, the less I enjoy reading about them even if it is in Victorian times.  This book was too “dark” for me.  While I enjoyed most of the details of the story above the ground, the descriptions of the vast, filthy, rat-filled, pitch dark, damp, and dangerous underground sewer tunnels where people live, grub, struggle, are maimed, and die, is not enjoyable to me. 

At this time, William Monk is a newly-appointed Thames River senior officer policeman.  While patrolling on the river with his crew, he witnesses a young couple on the Waterloo Bridge who appear to be arguing when they fall into the water and drown.   They are quickly found and identified as Mary Havilland and Toby Argyll.   

As Monk tries to determine whether it was a suicide or an accident he discovers Mary’s father was thought to have committed suicide just two months earlier and that Toby Argyll is her ex-fiancé.  Mary’s father was an engineer working for Alan Argyll, Toby’s wealthy older brother who was drilling tunnels underground with big machines for London’s new sewer system.  The mystery unfolds as Monk and his old adversary, Superintendent Runcorn, work together to uncover what actually happened to Mary’s father and why, and what the Argyll’s had to do with it.  Also, what really happened on the Waterloo Bridge.

As always, the courtroom scenes with Oliver Rathborn are brilliant.  Ms. Perry knows how to develop the dialog and descriptions of non-verbal facial and bodily movements skillfully—making you feel as if you are actually there; (another however), I have learned after eight Monk books that Perry’s endings are often a let down.  Like other authors, they seem to have become somewhat the same—fade away into ______? (you fill in the blank).

Nevertheless, I will give this book five stars because all of Perry’s books are good.  I just didn’t enjoy the darkness of this particular subject.