Dark Tide Rising by Anne Perry/Review by Sharon Marchisello
Dark Tide Rising
By Anne Perry
Ballentine
$28.00
ISBN 978-0399179914
Publication Date: September 2018
BOOK OF THE DAY
This was the first time I'd read one of Anne Perry's novels, and I was excited to find this book so soon after hearing her speak at last summer's Killer Nashville conference.
I was a little concerned I might be late to the party, with Dark Tide Rising being #24 in the series, but the author provided enough background information about the characters and their relationships so I didn't really need to have read the previous books to follow the story.
Her writing is splendid, and she did a good job of evoking Victorian London. I could feel that cold winter wind blowing off the Thames.
The story opens when William Monk, commander of the Thames River Police, is called to facilitate a ransom payment for a kidnapping. Wealthy businessman Harry Exeter asks for assistance from the river police to deliver payment in exchange for the release of his wife, Kate. But the mission goes terribly wrong; Exeter and the police are ambushed, the ransom money is collected, and Kate is tragically killed. Exeter appears devastated, and Monk blames himself.
Worse, the only explanation is that one of Monk's men betrayed their position. A good bit of the story is spent agonizing over who might be the traitor, and what dark secrets each man might harbor that would cause him to sell out his colleagues. Some of the agonizing is repetitious, which slows the plot down in places.
Every time they get a lead in the case, someone else gets killed. There are some good twists toward the end, which picked up the pace and made this a satisfying read.
British historical novelist Anne Perry is the author of two long-running, critically-acclaimed detective series. One features Victorian policeman Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte; the other, of which Dark Tide Rising is the most recent, stars Detective William Monk and his clever wife Hester, a Crimean War nurse. In addition, Anne Perry has published numerous short stories, a World War I series, and over a dozen Christmas novellas.
Sharon Marchisello (sharonmarchisello.com) is the author of Going Home, (Sunbury Press, 2014) a murder mystery inspired by her mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease. She earned a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and is a member of the Atlanta chapter of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Peachtree City, GA, with her husband and cat, does volunteer work for the Fayette Humane Society, and writes a blog about personal finance, Countdown to Financial Fitness https://sharonmarchisello.blogspot.com/.