The Twisted Root: A William Monk Novel: 10 - Softcover

Perry, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345514106 ISBN 13: 9780345514103

Publisher: Ballantine Group, 2011

Synopsis

A young bridegroom enlists private investigator William Monk to track down his fiancée, Miriam Gardiner, who disappeared suddenly from a party at a luxurious Bayswater mansion. Monk soon finds the coach in which Miriam fled and, nearby, the murdered body of the coachman, but there is no trace of the young passenger. What strange compulsion could have driven the beautiful widow to abandon the prospect of a loving marriage and financial abundance? 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

Review:

William Monk, the unquestionably handsome, somewhat vain, but genuinely tender-hearted "agent of enquiry" is back on the streets of Victorian London, investigating his 10th case, a missing woman. Miriam Gardiner was due to be betrothed to a much younger man, a well-to-do gentleman named Lucius Stourbridge. But during a family croquet party, the bride-to-be vanished, apparently fleeing in a coach driven by a family servant named Treadwell. Perhaps just a simple case of pre- wedding jitters, Monk would normally be reluctant to take on such a seemingly dull case but his own recent marriage to the headstrong nurse Hester Latterly gives Monk a new- found empathy for the heartbroken Lucius. Of course as is tradition in Perry's historical mysteries, all is not quite as it seems. Treadwell is found murdered and the missing Miriam becomes the number one suspect. Monk is convinced that she "could and would do no intentional evil", even as Hester connects her to another illicit crime. Eventually unearthed by London's finest, Miriam is arrested and charged with murder. It's up to barrister Oliver Rathbone to absolve her in court (with a little help from his good friends William and Hester Monk).

With a plot twist around every corner, Anne Perry knows just how to keep us in suspense, right up to the exceedingly dramatic finale. The Twisted Root is a luminous whodunit from the queen of the Victorian mystery. --Naomi Gesigner

Review:

"This is a story with twists and turns aplenty. The ending is the biggest twist of all."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"When a law flies in the face of moral justice, can a person be condemned for defying it--even to the point of murder? Anne Perry argues the issue with uncommon eloquence."--The New York Times Book Review

"No one is better known for portraying Victorian life and social mores."--The Denver Post

"Perry carries the suspense right into the last few pages."--The Christian Science Monitor

"Anne Perry is [a] master of crime fiction who rarely fails to deliver a strong story and a colorful cast of characters."--Baltimore Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Group
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0345514106
• ISBN 13: 9780345514103
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352